


Among the Stars

by LadyMidnight24



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 13:54:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 65,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19319539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMidnight24/pseuds/LadyMidnight24
Summary: So, originally this chapter was going to be the last part of their summer and take place at Penelope's house, but honestly I am out of inspiration to write it and already have the next chapter written, so I'm just going to skip it and maybe I'll go back in and add it later. You basically would have found out that both of Penelope's parents died a few years back so now she lives with her aunt (the DADA teacher) and sister (a sixth year ravenclaw). Sorry for my laziness, now back to the story.





	1. Year 1 - Part 1

       Wisteria Sofia Evans looks in awe at the scarlet train sitting in front of her. She takes one last look back at her parents who look just as overwhelmed as she feels and finally she takes a deep breath and follows her twin onto the train.

       "I'm gonna go find Severus." Lily says. "I saw him enter over there. We'll find you later, okay?" Then she turns and runs off, her long red hair trailing behind her.

       Now alone, Wisteria finds a compartment with only one person in it. "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" She asks the boy. He turns around to look at her and she notices his grey eyes widen slightly. She knows he's looking at her bright red hair, she's gotten used to that reaction before. The boy doesn't hesitate in replaying. 

       "Of course not." He says, his silvery grey eyes still on her. "What's your name?" He asks her.

       "Wisteria Sofia Evans." She replies. "I go by Sofia."

       The boy smirks and the butterflies in her stomach flutter. "I think I like Wisteria better." He says.

       "I would prefer to not be called by that name."

       His smirk only widens, "Then I'll call you Wisty." The boy decides. He reminds Wisteria of the boy she was dating back home. Of course she had to cut it off with him now that she is going to Hogwarts, but she still hasn't quite gotten over him. Now, faced with a boy who wears the same confident and comfortable smirk as her boyfriend did, Wisteria does what she always does when she gets nervous. She talks.

       "Are you excited to go to Hogwarts? I know I am. I was born as a... what is it you guys call us? Muggles?"

       "You weren't born a muggle." The boy says. "You were born to a muggle family. Even though your family has no wizard background, you were still born just as much of a wizard as I was." 

       Wisteria smiles. "Right. Well, I was born to a muggle family then. My sister Lily and I both were, she's here too. Our other sister Petunia didn't get a letter to Hogwarts though, she wasn't very happy about that. Anyway, the moment I learnt that I was to go to Hogwarts I bought all the book I could on the wizard world. It's absolutely magnificent. I mean, Lily and I were always really big readers and I personally loved the fantasy stories, so when I discovered that magic and wizards were real... I was speechless. Then the more I read up on this world the more I realized how beautiful it is! Magic is amazing! Of course, there are the lesser amazing parts. I read about Grindelwald and that whole thing, but I also read that the headmaster at Hogwarts is Albus Dumbledore, the man who defeated Grindelwald and has been deemed the most powerful wizard in the world.

       "Speaking of Hogwarts, I read up the different classes they offer as well. I can't wait! I'm not sure how I'll do with the actual magic parts of it like in Transfigurations or Charms, but I've always been really good at cooking and I was decent at chemistry in my muggle school, so I should be okay at Potions right? Then there's Care of Magical Creatures, which I absolutely cannot wait for! I've already read through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander and it was amazing. The creature sound beautiful. I think that the class I'm most excited for though is Astronomy. I've always loved the stars and taking an entire class on them sounds wonderful! I don't know many constellations or stars right now. I can sometimes tell the difference between the big and little dipper and I can always find Orion. It's by far my favorite, though it's also really easy to find. That's always the one they point out first when teaching us in school. It's just so easy to find. The only stars that I can point out and name are the North Star, which is easy, and then Bellatrix and Sirius, but those are both near Orion, so of course those are easy." 

       Wisteria pauses to take a breath and notices that the boy is staring at her with that smirk on his face again. "Do you know my name?" He asks, and Wisteria's eyes widen. 

       "Oh my! How rude of me. Here I am rambling on and I haven't even given you the chance to introduce yourself yet! I apologize. What's your name?"

       "Sirius Orion Black."

       Wisteria smiles and rolls her eyes. "Ha-ha, very funny. Now stop mocking me and tell me your name."        

       "I'm not mocking you." He says honestly. "My family has thing with space. I have two brothers named Mercury and Regulus."

       "No." Wisteria says, not willing to believe it.

       "Yes."

       Wisteria opens her mouth to respond when the compartment door opens and a boy with messy black hair and glasses comes tumbling in. Wisteria looks up to see Lily standing in the doorway fuming. Another boy with sandy blond hair walks into the compartment and helps up the boy the fell. 

       "Pardon me." He mumbles to Wisteria as he helps the other boy into the seat next to her. 

       "Hey, are you okay?" A chubby boy asks the one with the messy black hair. "Here, I just bought a bunch of chocolate frogs. You want one?"

       "Yeah. Thanks." The black haired boy says, taking one of the treats. 

       "Lily?" Wisteria says, getting her sister's attention. "What happened?"

       "Oh! Lily!" The black haired boy now sitting to the left of Wisteria says dramatically while holding a hand to his chest. "The name is indeed as beautiful as the girl." He professes loudly, earning a glare from Lily, an eye roll from the boy with the sandy blond hair, and chuckles from everyone else. Wisteria now understood what happened. 

       "Excuse me." Wisteria says, tapping the black haired boy on the shoulder. "I'm afraid that my dear sister doesn't particularly like it when strangers hit on her."

       "I find it highly offending that you would hit on a girl without getting to know her first." Lily states before storming away. 

       After a few moments of silence, Sirius speaks up. "Well. That was amusing. And who might you three be?"

       The black haired boy holds out his hand. "James Potter."

       "Remus Lupin." Says the sandy haired boy.

       "And I'm Peter. Peter Pettigrew." The chubby says. 

       "You wouldn't mind giving me a chocolate frog would you Peter?" Sirius asks.

       "Of course not." Peter says, handing him one.

       "The names Black. Sirius Black." He says, opening the packaging and taking a bite of the frog. "And the girl is Wisty Evans."

       "You said that Lily was your sister, right?" James asks Wisteria.

       "Yes."

       "Do you think I stand a chance with her? Be honest."

       "I'm afraid that if you want my sister, you will have to get in line. She already has one admirer and he's liked her for a while now. You'll also have to be incredibly impressive. It takes a lot to get my sister's attention."

       "And what does it take to get your attention?" Sirius asks. Wisteria's heart skips a beat. Her ex-boyfriend had said very similar words to her once. She takes a deep breath and lets a smile come to her lips. 

       "Why should I tell you?" Wisteria says playfully. Sirius smirk returns once again, but James interrupts before he can respond. 

       "This ride is gonna be long and boring." He says, stretching himself out and propping his legs up on the seat between Sirius and Peter. "We need something to entertain ourselves."

       "Like what?" Peter asks as he munches on yet another chocolate frog.         

       "Well, while you boys think about that, I think I'm going to go." Wisteria says, standing up

       "Aww. Wisty, you should stay." Sirius whines.

       "I need to find my sister. James probably traumatized her." She smiles at James to let him know she was kidding.

       "I suppose that we will see you at the school then. Goodbye for now." James says and the others say their goodbyes as well. A few minutes later Wisteria was sat in a compartment with Lily and Severus. 

       "I was barely here for ten minutes before he came up and tried to flirt with me." Lily rants, clearly annoyed. Wisteria simply laughs.

       "You must admit though, those boys were rather cute." 

       Lily rolls her eyes. "Yes, but that doesn't make it okay." 

       "Well, with enough luck, you, Severus, and I will end up in the same house and then we can avoid them together." Wisteria says. The three friends continue all the way to the school in their compartment, talking and joking and laughing together. 

 

       The Hogwarts Express pulls into the station at Hogsmeade and the students begin to file off the train. The first years are then led to the Black Lake and told to get into the boats. Severus, Lily, and Wisteria get into a boat together and make their way towards the castle. Severus can't help, but smile and stare at the twins, the wonder in their eyes make them shine. The twins on the other hand barely even notice Severus; they are too busy staring at the castle that grows nearer. 

       By the time their boat makes its way onto the shore and they are told to get out, Lily and Wisteria are chatting excitedly about entering the school. Upon entering the school the first years are stopped by a professor who explains the sorting ceremony briefly to them and then leads them into the Great Hall. Once again the twins can only stare in wonder, this time looking up at the ceiling. It was hard to tell if there was a ceiling at all. Instead of seeing a clear one, they saw the sky, just as it was outside.

       The first years were lead to the front of the room, in front of a stool with a hat on it. Wisteria, Lily, and Severus all laugh together as the hat suddenly opens its mouth and begins to sing. It sings of the different qualities each house is known for and soon the song is finished. The professor from before stands in front of them once more, now she calls them up in alphabetical order to be sorted.

       The twins talk with Severus for a while, speculating about what house they would get into when Wisteria hears a familiar name. 

       "Black, Sirius." 

       Wisteria looks up at the stool to see the boy walk up to the stool.  _ I guess he wasn't lying about his name, _ she thinks to herself as Lily leans over to her.

       "Did she say his name was Sirius?"

       "Yes." Wisteria whispers back. "He was one of the boys I was with on the train for a while."

       "Oh." Lily says just as the hat yells,

       "GRYFFINDOR!"

       "Well," Wisteria says to Lily and Severus, "I know what house I don't want." The three of them chuckle and continue their conversation as more people are called up. Soon the professor calls out, 

       "Evans, Lily."

       Lily takes a deep breath, "Wish me good luck." She whispers as she makes her way up to the hat. Wisteria holds her breath as the hat is placed on Lily's head. It seems to consider her for a few seconds before shouting out, 

       "GRYFFINDOR!"

       Wisteria lets her breath go and smiles up at her sister. Before she could notice Severus' suddenly sour mood she hears the professor call,

       "Evans, Wisteria."

       She gulps and makes her way up to the stool. Luckily before she can feel too overwhelmed with the number of people staring at her, the hat is placed on her head and a sudden voice distracts her.

       "Ah, a second Evans..." The voice says, for a moment Wisteria panics, but then she realizes that the voice is coming from the hat. "You're brave, just like your sister. And smart like her as well." Wisteria forces herself to not roll her eyes.  _ Great,  _ she thinks to herself,  _ I’ve just got here and even the hat's comparing me to my sister. _ Wisteria can almost feel the hat chuckle to itself before she hears it yell, "RAVENCLAW!" 

       As Wisteria clumsily takes off the hat and makes her way towards the cheering table she tries to remember what she can about the Ravenclaw house. Rowena Ravenclaw founded them, their colors are blue and bronze, and they are known for their wisdom and creativity. Wisteria smiles to herself as she sits down. Suddenly a boy has stuck his hand in her face. 

       "Hello there. My name is Xenophilius Lovegood."

       "Oh." Wisteria exclaims, shaking his hand awkwardly. "Um.. I'm Wisteria Evans."

       "Wisteria? Like the plant?"

       "Yes. My family has a thing with flowers. What year are you?"

       "I'm a 6th year."

       "Oh really? What's it like? Here at Hogwarts I mean."

       "Oh it's nice." He says rather vaguely. 

       "All of the houses have their own dorms right? How will I be able to find ours? This castle looked huge from the outside and what little I saw of the interior didn't look very easy to navigate."

       "It's not easy. I still get lost. Oh and you might want to be careful of the moving staircases."

       Someone nearby noticed Wisteria's panicked look and said "Don't worry. If you were sorted into Ravenclaw that means your smart, you'll figure everything out in no time."

       Wisteria nodded and went back to watching the sorting. She watched Remus, Peter, and James all get sorted into Gryffindor and Severus get sorted into Slytherin.  _ So much for all of us being in the same house,  _ Wisteria thinks sourly.

       Finally the sorting is over and Dumbledore stands up to make his speech. He mentions the school rules, though most of them are pretty obvious, and he wraps up the speech by declaring dinner served.

       As soon as the words leave his mouth, food appears on the tables in front of Wisteria. She doesn't even know where to begin eating. There is so much food and all of it looks good, but she can't eat it all. So, she reaches for the first thing she can find and starts with that.

       By the end of dinner, Wisteria was stuffed. She gets up with the rest of the Ravenclaws and follows them as the returning students lead the way to the Ravenclaw Tower. Once there, a Ravenclaw Prefect explained that to get into the Common Room, we have to answer a riddle. He made sure to include that we should not be ashamed to ask for help if we can't figure it out on our own. After leading us into the common room the Prefects split the first years into boys and girls and lead them into their respective dorm areas. Wisteria found her dorm quickly and when she opened the door, she was the first one there.

       Wisteria claimed the bed on the far right as hers flopped down on it. Right as her back hit the mattress, the door opens and two girls walk in. One of them has long black hair with eyes as green as Lily's while the other girl has shoulder length blond hair and brown eyes. 

       "Hello." Wisteria says, not bothering getting off her bed to greet them.

       "Oh. Hello." Says the blond girl. "I'm Shannon Prince."

       "And I'm Penelope Renshaw." Says the girl the black hair.

       "My name's Wisteria Evans. Nice to meet you."

       "You too. You wouldn't happen to know who our other roommate is, would you? I saw on the sign outside that her name was Jane Tuft, but I haven't met her yet. I was wondering if you had."

       Wisteria shakes her head right as something hits their door. The three girls look at each other and then Wisteria walks up and opens the door. There is a girl with blond hair down to her chin lying on the floor outside the door.

       "Oh merlin, are you okay?" Shannon asks.

       "Yeah." The girl says as she struggles to get up. "I'm just a little clumsy is all. I think this is my room though.

       "Oh. Are you Jane Tuft?"

       "Yup, that’s me."

       The girls welcome her into the room and go through introductions. It doesn't take long for all three of them to get settled in, lie down on their beds, and fall fast asleep.


	2. Year 1 - Part 2

       Thursday was flying lessons for first years, the Ravenclaws were with the Hufflepuffs. Wisteria, Shannon, Penelope, Jane, and a girl who they met in potions the other day named Christine Broadmoor make their way down to the Quidditch pitch together. Wisteria isn't quite sure how Quidditch works, Severus doesn't like the sport very much so his attempt at explaining it was pretty poor, but she knows it involves flying on brooms.

       "I've actually already ridden one." Penelope tells them. "My older sister is a fifth year and she doesn't like riding her broom, so I taught myself how to ride in our backyard. It's really fun."

       "Do you think you'll try out for the Quidditch team next year?" Christine asks.

       "Probably not. I'm not really the kind of girl who plays sports."

       "This is going to be awful..." Shannon says, she'd been nervous all morning. "I'm gonna fall! And then I'll hit my head and go into a coma and miss months, maybe years, of school and I'll be so far behind on school work that I'll never be able to catch up and then I wont be able to get a job and my life will be over!" She sucks in a deep breath and the other girls laugh.

       "Calm down Shay." Wisteria says. "Even if you do fall and bump your head, though I doubt you will, Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix you up before you know it." 

       The girls fell silent as Madam Hooch made her way towards them. "Stick your right hand out over your broom." Madame Hooch yelled so that everyone could hear her. "Then say 'Up!'"

       In one loud chorus everyone yelled, "UP!" Shannon's and Penelope's brooms flew into their hands immediately, Wisteria's made a little hopping motion, and Christine's and Jane's didn't move at all. Jane gave a frustrated grunt and she tried again. Wisteria looked around and saw only two other people with their brooms in their hands already. One was a Ravenclaw boy that she didn't know and the other was a Hufflepuff boy. He looked mildly surprised that it had worked so well, but otherwise didn't react. As if he felt Wisteria looking at him, his eyes flicked up and locked with hers. Wisteria blushed and looked away, continuing to try and get the broom into her hand. On the third try it shot up and she was able to grab it. Soon, everyone had a broom in their hand and Madam Hooch continued.

       "Good, now mount your broom and jump. The goal is simply to hover."

       Wisteria swings a leg over her broom and with a deep breath jumps. She's a little shaky at first, but quickly gets the hang of it and regains her balance. Shannon and Jane had less luck than her and fell off and had to try again. Christine and Penelope on the other hand were having no difficulties whatsoever, and neither was the Hufflepuff boy. He seemed to be casually sat on his broom and looked bored, unlike most people who gripped their brooms with white knuckles and looked nervous. Once again, he and Wisteria made eye contact and once again her face flushed red, though this time she fell off her broom entirely. As she got back up and dusted herself off Christine gave her a playful smile. 

       "That Hufflepuff boy is pretty cute, right?"

       "What? I-uh... I guess." Wisteria stammered, blushing even more. 

       Christine laughs, "He keeps looking at you Wisty. He might like you?"

       "Oh please. I don't even know his name."

       "So? You should talk to him. In between this lesson and dinner."

       Wisteria glanced back at him to find his eyes already on hers. "Maybe..." she mumbled as she got back on her broom and jumped. This time balancing came easier to her. 

       Flying lessons are over and the girls are starting to make their way to the Great Hall when Christine stops Wisteria. 

       "Go! Talk to him. I'll distract the girls so they'll leave you two alone." Christine winks at Wisteria and walks away, leaving her friend red faced. Wisteria turns and sees the boy walking towards the lake. She takes a deep breath and runs after him

       "Hey!" She yells, effectively catching his attention. He turns and looks at her. Up close she gets a better look at him and notices that he's much more attractive than she originally thought. His brown hair is slightly messy, but it looks naturally so, not like he spent hours this morning trying to get it that way. He is tan and lean, and not tall, but not short either. His eyes are beautiful and have an odd twinkle in them, similar to the one Wisteria often sees in Dumbledore's eyes. 

       "Yes?" He asks.

       "Are you not going to eat dinner?" She says the first thing that popped into her head.

       "I don't usually eat in the Great Hall. Too many people, too much noise. I can't think. Besides, the Hufflepuff Common Room is near the Kitchens. If I get hungry I can easily just sneak in there and get the house elves to make me something." 

       Wisteria nods and tries to think of something else to say. "You were really good on that broom today."

       He gives her a small smile. "Thanks. You were pretty good too, especially for a muggle born."

       She looks at him surprised. "How did you?.."

       His smile broadens. "You look just like Lily. She was helping me with my charms homework the other day. I took a guess. You guys are related right?"

       "Yeah. She's my twin sister. My name is Wisteria, by the way."

       He holds his hand out and she takes it. Wisteria is beyond shocked when he brings her hand to his mouth and plants a kiss on it. "Michael Alderton. It's nice to meet you Wisteria."

       She ignores her burning face and forces herself to keep talking. "You too. Are you going to try out for Quidditch next year."

       "I don't have much interest in sports. I might though. What about you?"

       "Oh. I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. From what I've read I have the right build for a Seeker, but I think I would be better as a Keeper."

       He looks at her, surprised. "Are you sure? That's a tough position."

       She smiles. "I'm a tough girl." 

       Michael laughs and it brightens his whole face. "Fair enough. You should go eat, I've kept you from dinner long enough."

       "Oh. Right."

       He must see the disappointment in her face because he quickly adds, "If you ever need help in any of your classes feel free to come and find me. I'll be happy to help. If I'm not in the library I'm probably near that tree over there." 

       Wisteria smiles. "Yeah, okay. I'll see you around."

 

       A few hours later she's sitting in the Common Room with her friends and they are pestering her about her conversation with the Hufflepuff. 

 

       "What was his name?"

       "Is he nice?"

       "What did he smell like?"

       "Did he ask you out?"

       "Is he cute up close?"

       "Shhh!" Wisteria says, blushing furiously. "Will you give me a chance to speak?" She takes a deep breath. "His name is Michael, and yes, he is very cute up close."

       "What about his eyes?" Shannon asks. "Oh, I just love guys with pretty eyes."

       "He had the prettiest eyes I've ever seen. I don't even know how to describe them. They were mostly green with some brown and they had little golden specks in them."

       "What did he smell like?" Jane asks. 

       Wisteria laughs. "Like apple pie and caramel."

       "What was he like? Was he nice?" Penelope asks. "If he's not nice then I don't care how amazing his eyes are or how amazing he smells, you are not dating him."

       "We aren't going to date!" Wisteria protests. "We had  _ one _ conversation! And anyway, he was very nice. He told me that if I am ever struggling in a class he will be willing to tutor me."

       Christine and Shannon squeal. "He wants to spend more time with you! That's a good sign!" Christine says excitedly. 

       "Ooh! I wonder how he'll ask her out?" Shannon asks.

       Wisteria groans. "You guys are loud. I'm going to bed." As she walks away she hears Penelope yell after her,

       "Don't deny it darling, it will happen!" followed by the giggling of all of Wisteria's friends.


	3. Year 1 - Part 3

       Wisteria and her roommates wake up over a month later on Halloween morning to the smell of pumpkins. Wisteria sighs, "Oh I just love pumpkin! Halloween was always my favorite holiday back home. Lily, Petunia, and I always dressed up and traded our candy after the night was over."

       "My favorite holiday is Christmas." Shannon says as she gets out of bed.

       "Mine too!" Jane yells from the bathroom. "I mean, candy is great and all, but presents are better!"

       "Yeah, but on Halloween you can scare people and it isn't frowned upon or considered bullying!" Wisteria argues.

       "Shut up. It's early." Penelope mumbles from under her covers. 

"Yes, but it's also Halloween! So get you butt out of bed, get dressed and come with us to eat breakfast!"

       "It's Saturday though! Let me sleep!"

       "Nope. Come on girls, let’s get the little girl out of bed."

       "Shut up...” 

Jane approaches Penelope's bed and grabs her feet. At first Penelope doesn't act, but the moment she realized Jane was seriously going to pull her out of bed she started thrashing around. Jane let go quickly and jumped back to avoid being kicked.

       "There!" Jane says happily. "Now you're awake. Let's go!" Jane runs out of the room before anyone can say anything.

       "She does realize that she's the only one ready, right?" Wisteria asks. 

       Shannon shrugs. "She'll figure it out soon enough."

       A few minutes later all the girls are in the great hall marveling at the decorations. There were bats flying all around the room. Real bats. That were really alive. Instead of the typical floating candles there were floating Jack-o-lanterns.

       "Lily, Petunia, and I used to love carving pumpkins. It was probably my favorite part. We would usually try to make complicated things and then fail miserably. The pumpkins would always look awful, but by the end we would always be covered in slime and pumpkin seeds, which our dad would then cook for us. Lily loved them, but Petunia and I were never very big fans of them." Wisteria remembers, a small smile on her face as she looks at the pumpkins above their heads.

       "My mom was an amazing artist." Jane says. "She would always carve the most beautiful pumpkins."

       "My family never did much. My aunt and uncle would come over and give us some candy, but other than that we never really did any of the typical Halloween stuff." Penelope speaks up after taking a sip of Pumpkin juice. 

       "My sister was here when I was still a child, so she would always send me candy from Honeydukes." Shannon tells them. 

       "My dad was against the holiday so we didn't celebrate it." Christine says. 

       Wisteria laughs, "See! I have the best Halloween memories by far! That proves that Muggles  _ are _ better than wizards in some ways."

       "I never said you weren't." Penelope defends. "Actually, I was thinking of taking Muggle Studies one year. What do you think?"

       "If you like wars I would definitely recommend it." Wisteria says with another laugh. 

       "So what do you guys want to do today?" Jane asks. "I mean, its Saturday, so no classes. We can do whatever we want."

       "We could go watch the team practice Quidditch." Christine suggests.

       "We don't know anyone on the team. What would be the point?" Wisteria points out.

       "I wish we were old enough to go to Hogsmeade." Penelope says miserably.

       "Oh, the castle isn't that bad. I say we take this time to explore a little!" Jane says excitedly.

       "Shouldn't we do homework first?" Asks Shannon. 

       "It's Halloween! We can't do homework on a holiday!" Wisteria protests. "I like Jane's idea. Let's explore a little! I've hardly had any time to do that."

       "Okay." Shannon says. "Where should we start?"

       "We don't need a starting place! We just walk and see where our feet take us!" Christine says. 

  
  


       By the time dinner rolled around the girls had only managed to explore under half the castle. When they got down to the Great Hall it felt much more like Halloween than before. The sun outside had already set, so now the ceiling of the room was dark. On her way in, Wisteria saw Lily and ran over to her.

 

       "Hey, Lily!"

  
  


       "Wisty! Oh, I've missed you! I wish you were around more ofter outside of study sessions and Astrology."

 

       "So do I. Have you talked to Severus recently? He doesn't come to the study session, so I never see him outside of Charms and he doesn't sit anywhere near me in that class."

       "He sit's next to me in Potions so I get to see him a good amount."

       "That's good. I'm-"

       "My precious Lilypad," The voice of James Potter interrupts. "How has your Halloween been? Good, I hope. Mine has been, though it would be much better if you would go on a date with me tomorrow."

       "Hmm." Lily says, pretending to consider it. "Let me think, no." 

       Wisteria turns around to see James, Peter, and Remus standing behind her. "Where's Sirius?" She asks. The four of them are practically inseparable. 

       "He's off with his new girlfriend right now." Remus explains.

       "Elizabeth is over there though." Wisteria says, pointing to the girl that she knew to be Sirius's girlfriend as of a couple weeks ago.

       "They broke up Monday. Now he's dating someone else." Peter tells her.

       "Oh. That didn't take long."

       "Yeah, I'm not sure how long this one's gonna last either." Remus says.

       "Well, it was nice talking to you, but my friends are currently waving frantically for me at the Ravenclaw table and I'm afraid I must go see what has them all so worked up. I will see you all later." Wisteria says and walks away after the others say goodbye. Not even five minutes after sitting down, Wisteria's attention is draw back to the Gryffindor table. 

       "Bombs away!" She hears James yell at the top of his lungs and throw four objects into the air, one at each of the house tables. Wisteria and her friends watched with curiosity as the 'bombs' came plummeting down on each table and exploded in a cloud of orange smoke. Everyone coughs and waves the smoke away while the professors cast spells to clear it out.

       When all the smoke is gone the students realize the smoke wasn't supposed to be the funny part of Jame's little prank. The thing that had him and his friends, along with many other people in the Great Hall roaring with laughter, is the fact that anywhere the orange smoke touched is now dyed the same shade of orange. 

       Wisteria and her friends laugh at the way each of them look and finally Penelope calms down enough to say, "Oh Wisty darling, that color looks absolutely  _ horrible  _ on you. It definitely does not complement your hair." That comment make them fall into hysterical laughter once more.

       Some students and teachers were mad, others were trying to find a way to reverse it, and some people had run out of the Great Hall for fear of people seeing them like that. In the end the Ravenclaw Prefects figured out how to undo the dye that was in the bombs. Some people chose to keep the orange look, just for fun, and James assured everyone that no matter what, it should be gone by Monday. By the end of the day, most people, even those who had originally been angry, were laughing off the whole incident with their friends.


	4. Year 1 - Part 4

       November rolled around and with the cold came and the beginning of Quidditch season. The first match was Slytherin and Gryffindor and the entire school was ecstatic about the upcoming game. Wisteria, along with most of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, was rooting for Gryffindor. She was going with Michael, though just as friends, and she was both excited and nervous. On one hand, it was the first Quidditch match that she will see, but on the other, she knows nothing about Quidditch. Wisteria meets Michael outside the Great Hall twenty minutes before the game begins.

 

       "Hello." Michael says to her, standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he waits. 

       "Hi." She replies right as her stomach growls. She prays he didn't hear it. He did.

       "Are you hungry?" He asks, his facial features laced with concern.

       "A little. I woke up late and missed breakfast. I'll be fine."

       "Are you sure? We have a while before the game. We can go down to the kitchens. The house elves would be more than happy to make you food."

       "Oh, no. I don't want to be a bother."

       "It's no bother at all. Come. We'll go get you food."

       Wisteria was about to protest, but her stomach growls again and she quickly follows after him. Michael leads her to the kitchen and she watches as he finds the painting and tickles the fruit. 

       "How did you find this place?" She asks as she walks through the opening and into a huge room. It's as big as the Great Hall and there are actual tables where the real house tables would be upstairs.

       "My brother, William. He's a fifth year and he knew about it. How he found out, I'm not sure, but he showed it to me."

       "Master Alderton!" A small voice squeaks. For a few moments Wisteria is fishing around in her brain to remember what they are, but finally she remembers seeing them in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These are house elves.

       "Mistress!" The same elf squeaks.

       "Oh!" Wisteria exclaims, shocked at being addressed as 'mistress'. 

       "What can Deedee do for Master Alderton and the Mistress?"

       Michael looks at Wisteria and it takes her a few moments to realize that they are waiting for her to tell her what she wants to eat. "Umm... Some toast and bacon would nice."

       "Right away Mistress!" The house elf says before scurrying off to cook the meal. 

       "Come." Michael says, beckoning Wisteria towards one of the tables. "Sit. Are you excited for the game today?"

       "Yes! Though, I don't know much about Quidditch.." 

       "Oh, that's right. You're a muggle born. Well, I myself don't particularly enjoy watching the sport, but I will do my best to explain. There are seven players per team and each have a specific role. There are three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper, and one Seeker. The Chasers role is to score as many points as they can in whatever time they have. They play with a ball called a Quaffle. The way they get points is by getting the Quaffle passed the other teams Keeper and into one of three hoops. I believe that they get ten points for every goal. The Keeper obviously is trying to keep the Quaffle from getting through the hoops. The Beaters play with a ball called a Bludger. They have big bats and their job is to hit the Bludger around the field to either save their own teammates from getting hit or to try to hit the other teams players with the Bludger. Finally there's the Seeker. The Seeker plays with the Snitch. The Snitch is a small golden ball with little wings. It flies around the Quiditch pitch and the Seekers have to find and capture it. When the Snitch is caught the game is over and whichever team's Seeker found it gets 150 points."

       While he was talking Wisteria's food arrived. Now as she sits there finished off the toast and moving onto the bacon the only word she can seem to mutter is, "Wow..."

       "Yeah, It's a lot I know."

       "That's not a problem. I have a really good memory. My parents were convinced for a while that I had a photographic memory. I don't, but my memory is still really good." 

       A few minutes later the two friends had finished eating and were on their way to the game. They got the Quidditch pitch five minutes before the start of the game. It didn't take long to find Shannon, Penelope, Jane, and Christine and they were already sitting with Severus and Lily. Unfortunately that also meant that James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus were there.

       "Hey look! It's our other red-headed flower." James says as Wisteria sits in front of them. 

       "That it is." Sirius says, chuckling at Jame's comment.

       "Hello boys." Wisteria says.

       "Hello Wisty. How has your day been?" Remus asks.

       "Wonderful. Thank you for asking Remus. And you?"

       "Oh my day's been terrible!" James complains loudly. "Lily has rejected my love once more and they wouldn't let me join the Quidditch team because I'm a first year, so now I'm stuck in the stands! How am I supposed to impress my precious Lilypad if I'm not even allowed to play Quidditch!"

       Remus laughs at James before responding to Wisteria, "My day has been fine."

       "Hey, Wisty?" Peter asks.

       "Yeah, what's up Peter?"

       "Have you finished that Astronomy homework yet? I was trying to do it last night, but I couldn't figure it out."

       "Oh yeah, neither could I." Sirius states.

       "Nor I." Says James.

       Wisteria sighs. "I'll meet you all tonight in the Astronomy tower so that I can help you."

       "Oh no, I would hate to impinge on your sleep time." Sirius says. "After all, you of all people are in desperate need of beauty sleep. You can just give us yours and we'll copy your answers and boom! Problem solved." 

       Wisteria rolls her eyes, but otherwise ignores Sirius's comment of her needing beauty sleep. "No. If I'm helping you this homework we will treat it as tutoring, I will not allow you to cheat off of me."

       "Fine then." James sighs. "Remus, could we copy yours?"

       "No. I'm with Wisteria on this one. Besides I don't have part of mine done as well."

       "I would actually enjoy coming as well," Michael speaks up.

       "That settles it then." Wisteria decides. "Tonight, directly after sunset, in the Astronomy tower."

       Before they could argue the teams walked out and the announcer started talking, "Welcome to the first match of this school year! This is Marshal Fawley speaking and I will be your commentator for todays Slytherin versus Gryffindor game! The captains of the teams this year are seventh year Hamish Frater for Gryffindor and sixth year Mercury Black for Slytherin!"

       Upon hearing the name Mercury Black, Wisteria thinks back to her conversation with Sirius on the train a few months ago when he mentioned that his family had a thing with space. She looks down at the Quiditch pitch and finds the boy standing in front of the rest of the Slytherin team. He has brown hair, much like Sirius', but shorter and even from up in the stands Wisteria can see the stone cold expression on his face and the fact that Mercury's eyes are brown, unlike Sirius' silvery grey ones. Wisteria turns to look at Sirius to find him looking somewhere in between angry and sad.

       "Is that..." Wisteria starts to ask.

       "Yeah." Sirius grumbles. "That's my older brother."

       "And the match has begun!" The Fawley shouts into the microphone while Wisteria makes a mental note to ask Sirius about his relationship with his brother later. For now though, she pays attention and tries to understand as much of the game as possible. 

  
  


       A few hours later Remus and Peter force James and Sirius away from the still raging party in the Gryffindor common room and get them to the Astronomy Tower on time. When they get there Wisteria is already there, sitting down, watching the sunset. The colors of the sky reflect in her hazel eyes she looks at peace for a moment. 

       "Hello beautiful." Sirius says as he struts up to Wisteria. By now he has made his way through three girlfriends and has already been written off by most of the school as a player. Not that that stops many girls from chasing after him and worshiping the ground he walks on. That's one thing he has in common with his older brother. Both of them easily win the attention of any and all girls they could possibly want. 

       "Hello Sirius." Wisteria says, ignoring his flirting. 

       "The sunset is almost as lovely as you are tonight." He continues.

       "Thank you, but we are not here to watch the sunset." Wisteria tells him.

       "We are here to watch the stars rise." Michael adds as he enters the room. "I hope I'm not late."

       "Of course not. You're perfectly on time. We were just here early." Remus says.

       "Ah, good. Let's get started then." Michael says as he sits down and takes out his Astronomy homework.


	5. Year 1 - Part 5

Christmas break was finally here and that meant that Lily and Wisteria finally got to go back home to their parents. They had been sending owls to their parents weekly, but now they got to see them in person after nearly four months of being away.

       The girls sat in a train car on the Hogwarts Express with Severus Snape, Jane, and Shannon. Many kids were choosing to stay at the school over the break. Sirius didn't want to go home, so James, Peter, and Remus all opted to stay as well. Christine and Penelope had decided to stay and Christine has momentarily moved into their room. Michael stayed behind at the school as well.

       "This is so nice!" Lily says, sitting between Severus and Wisteria. "We don't have to deal with the boys constantly hovering around, we get to go home and see mum and dad-" she cuts off with an excited gasp, "Do you think Petunia has calmed down yet? Maybe she's back to her normal self! Oh we get to make our christmas cookies and hopefully they haven't decorated the tree yet, that's always my favorite part, and Sev, you can help us with all of that! I'm sure our parents would be delighted to have you around! Then on Christmas day we can open presents and, Wisty, you are just going to  _ love _ the gift I got you! What did you get Petunia? I wasn't sure what I should get her, so I haven't gotten anything yet. Maybe we could go Christmas shopping together? And of course Sev, Jane, and Shay are invited to come with us when we do-"

       "Lily!" Wisteria butts in, ending her sisters excited rant. "We get it, you love christmas and you are elated to be back home, but calm down."

       "You're right. I need to breath. It's just... this year has been so amazing so far, you know? I want its end to be perfect."

       "And it will be, but you needn't talk all of our ears off about it." Jane says.

       Lily smiles and laughs. "I suppose you're right. Okay, I'm calm now, see? Perfectly calm. So, what are you all doing for the holidays?"

       "My family always gets together and has a big feast on Christmas eve and then on Christmas we have a nice lazy day and the days after and before we usually just find some snow and play in it." Shannon tells them.

       "My mother was a muggle born and she grew up extremely religious so we spend most of Christmas day in the church and don't get many presents. It's still nice though. Everything is calm... sort of. My little siblings are still a little crazy, but oh well." Jane explains.

       "And we don't usually do anything special, so anything worth while will probably the time I spend with you." Severus says, obvious to all except Lily that he was only talking to her and not her  _ and  _ her sister when he said this. The way that Severus looked at her also went noticed by all except Lily. Jane opened her mouth to say something, but Shannon noticed and kicked her leg to stop her. 

       "Oh please Severus. Stop being dramatic." Lily said, completely oblivious to the way his face fell slightly when she said that. 

       An awkward silence filled the air for a moment before the door opened to reveal the trolley lady.

 

       "Anything from the trolley dears?"

       They all bought a few things and the lady moved on, leaving the kids to sit and have fun with their candy. 

 

       A few days later it's Christmas morning. Lily and Wisty quickly realized upon their arrival home that their dear sister was not back to normal. Petunia was avoiding them at all costs, ignoring their attempts at conversation, refusing to go shopping with them, decorate the tree with them, or make cookies with them and had even taken to calling them "wretched wizards" when she talked to them at all. The girls were devastated, but their parents made the trip home worth it. They rarely stopped talking to their parents, telling them everything about their classes and their friends and magic that they could think of. A few days Severus was able to come over as well as Jane and Shannon, so their parents got to meet some other wizards. Now they were all sat in the living room around the Christmas tree, sorting the presents into piles based on whose they were.

       "Oh look!" Wisteria exclaimed. "This big one's for me."

       "I wonder what it could be." Her dad says, winking at her. 

       "Maybe it's a love potion." Lily teased. "You'd certainly need that much if you ever wanted any boy to fall for you." 

       "Oh really?" Wisteria says, raising her eyebrows. "Well I suppose you wouldn't understand what it's like not having boys following you around like lost puppies all the time." 

       "What are you talking about! I don't-"

       "Have you told mum about James yet?" 

       "James?" Their mother questions.

       "Who is James? He isn't your boyfriend is he?" Their father asks.

       Lily's cheeks turn bright red. "Dad! No! James is just... He's just this annoying boy at school is all."

       "Yeah, an annoying, cute, boy in the same house as her who watches her every move with fascination and drools over her every time she walks in the room and professes his love for her at least twice a day." Wisteria elaborates.

       Lily rolls her eyes. "That's an exaggeration."

       "Not by much." Wisteria mutters.

       "This James boy isn't a problem, is he?" Their father asks.

       "No dad. He's just an idiot. Don't worry."

       "He's got a whole group of friends that are idiots with him. A nice boy named Peter Pettigrew, a smart boy named Remus Lupin, and, mum, you wont believe what the last one's name is, Sirius Orion Black. Like the star and the constellation. Apparently his family has a thing with stars, just like you have that thing with flowers."

       "Alright," Interrupted their dad. "That's enough boy talk from now, it's time to open presents." 

       Wisteria looks at the big one first, but decides to save that one for last. Instead she reaches for the one nearest to her, which is a small box that says its from Severus. Inside is a pair of earrings  that she had been admiring the other day at the mall. A small smile comes to her lips as she sets them to the side and decides to put them on later.

       The next few presents she grabs are all from he mother and are basic essentials like clothes and a few books. Then came presents from Shay and Jane. Jane got her all sorts of candy that she had never seen before and remembered when Jane was horrified that she had never had certain candies that wizards have, but muggles don't.  _ These must be the candies she was talking about,  _ Wisteria realizes. Shay wrote her a heartfelt letter and after it was read it folded itself into an origami Ferret.

       Wisteria laughs at these gifts and sets them off to the side to grab Lily's present. It's a thin square package and Wisteria can't imagine what would be inside of it. When she opens it she finds what appears to be a vinyl record for one of her favorite bands. 

       "Lily, I love it, but I don't have anything that can play this-"

       "Don't speak so fast darling. You haven't opened my present yet." Her dad speaks up.

       "No..." Wisteria said breathlessly as she reached for the big box. She had wanted a record player for so long now! Could her dad have actually gotten her one. When she finally gets the box ripped open she discovers that her dad had, in fact, gotten her a record player. "Dad... I... I'm speechless... Thank you!" She throws herself across the room and wraps her arms around him. 

       He laughs. "No problem. I figured you would need to educate those wizards on how we party." He says smiling down at his daughter.

       She laughs as well. "There haven't been many parties so far. Only one big one I think and that was only in the Gryffindor house since they won the first game of the season."

       "Oh!" Lily gasps. "Wisty, have you opened your present from Sev yet?"

       "Yes, why?"

       "Because he got me what is possibly the most lovely necklace I  have ever seen."

       "And he got me some earrings. I wonder how much this cost?"

       "Oh I feel awful. All I got for him was a letter and a picture of the two of us together."

       Wisteria smiled at her sister. "I think he will love that."


	6. Year 1 - Part 6

       Everyone returns from the break dreading having to return to the school. By the first day most students already had more homework than they felt was necessary. The charms teacher had decided to give students an essay to write about a list of spells that they had learned before the break and no student was looking forward to doing it. Wisteria was sitting under a tree next to the Black Lake in her favorite spot when James, Peter, and Sirius decided to approach her. 

       "Can you help us with that blasted charms essay we were assigned?" James asks, getting right to the point. 

       "Why can't Remus help you?" She asks before adding, "Where is Remus?"

       "He's sick. Which is also why he can't help us with that essay." Sirius speaks up.

       Wisteria sighs. "Fine. Do you want to get to work now?"

       "Actually we have plans in a little while." Peter tells her. "I'm free tomorrow though."

       "Me too." James says.

       "I'm not." Sirius says. "My week is basically booked, but I have some spare time this afternoon after dinner. Would that work?"

       "Yeah that would be fine. I'll meet you after dinner in the library and I expect you to actually work. And as for you two I will see you tomorrow directly after lunch. Sound good?" She gets three yes'. "Great. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go ask professor Binns a question about the homework he assigned us."

 

After dinner Wisteria sat in the library waiting for Sirius to show up. While she waits she reads through a book about the history of magic that was probably 90 times more interesting than professor Binns’ lessons. As she reads, she gets up and walks through the library to get a book for the charms essay that she was supposed to be helping Sirius with, if he would just show up. Suddenly she bumps into someone and almost falls over, but catches herself at the last minute. When she looks up to apologize her eyes meet the hard brown ones of Mercury Black and the cold look on his face causes Wisteria to look away.

“I- um… S-sorry. I don’t... um… I’m usually good at walking and… umm… reading…” She glances at him to see him smirking, but it isn’t the cool, flirtatious smirk that Sirius uses that makes you want to laugh and go along with whatever stupid thing he’s suggesting, Mercury’s smirk sends a chill down your spine and makes you feel like he could kill you right then and there and do it smiling.

“Don’t worry about it for now, just don’t let it happen again.” His voice is different than Sirius’ as well, his voice was deeper, but not as warm.

“Umm…” She says, instantly regretting speaking up again, “Y-you’re Sirius’ older brother right?” The look on his face as he nods was somewhere in between annoyance and mild interest. “You wouldn’t happen to know where he is would you?”

Now he rolls his eyes and a glare comes to his face. “You mean that filthy blood traitor I’m forced to call a brother? No clue. Honestly, he’s probably off snogging one of his fangirls. I think it’s odd anyone would date my brother. He has always been a loner in school, hanging out with those three deadbeat friends of his. And don’t even get me started on his hair, I don’t care what the girls think, it’s just sloppy.”

“Oh… Right… Well, I think that I need to go get that book for my charms essay…”

Mercury watches her walk away and then moves along, approaching his friend Shaun.

“Hey, do you know who that girl is?” Mercury asks him.

“Not really. I know what I’ve heard though. She’s a Ravenclaw and one of the best in her class. She helps people with homework a lot, even some Slytherin’s have gone to her for help, but none of he respectable ones.”

“Why not the respectable ones?”

“Because she’s a mudblood.”

Mercury’s nose crinkles in disgust. “Damn. I was hoping she might be a good influence on Sirius. Though I must say, she didn’t seem to be a very confident person. Sirius probably wouldn’t go for her anyway.”

“Why would you want him to?”

“Well obviously I hope he stays far away from her, but if she weren’t a mudblood then she could have gotten him away from that Gryffindor swine.”

 

Wisteria scuttles away as fast as she can, feeling somehow as if she had just avoided a great danger. She quickly finds the book and moves back to the table, staying as far away from Mercury as possible and then feels relieved when she sees him walk out with a big friend of his that she recognizes as one of the Beaters on the Slytherin Quidditch team. 

“What’s wrong?” Sirius says as he struts up to her.

“Oh… umm… I ran into your brother a second ago.”

Sirius’ face falls, but he quickly covers it up with his usual smirk. “I bet that was fun.” He says sarcastically, effectively calming Wisteria down.

“Yeah. Your brother sure is a charmer isn’t he.”

           “Unbelievably so.”

Wisteria and Sirius laugh and now she is feeling much better. “Let’s get to work.” She says, opening the book she got. As they work through the Charms essay Wisteria can’t get a thought out of her head.

“What is a blood traitor?” She finally asks Sirius.

“What?” He asks, his head jerking up and his eyes narrowing at her.

“Umm… When I ran into your brother earlier I asked him where you were and he called you a blood traitor. I’ve never heard that term before. I was wondering what it meant.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Sirius says, scowling.

“What?”

“I said don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just finish this essay.”

Wisteria was shocked, but didn’t press it any farther.

 

Later that night Wisteria sat in her room with the girls and she brought up the question again. “What is a blood traitor?” She asks and the girls fall silent.

“What makes you ask that?” Penelope says.

“I heard someone called that today. I asked Sirius, but he wouldn’t tell me.”

The girls stayed silent for a little while longer before Jane finally spoke up. “A blood traitor is a wizard who is a pureblood, but likes muggles and muggle related things. Sirius is a little sensitive on the subject because he is considered one.”

“Yeah. It’s almost as bad a term as mudblood.” Christine states.

“What does that mean?” Wisteria asks innocently.

Everyone glares at Christine before Shannon speaks up. “Mudblood is the derogatory term used mainly by purebloods to described Muggleborns.”

“Oh… That’s awful.”

“Yes, it is. And if anyone ever calls you that you have to tell us right away. We will give them what they deserve.” Jane says.  
  



	7. Year 1 - Part 7

It’s Thursday, January 30, and Wisteria walks through the halls of the castle, moving towards the Great Hall for dinner. Suddenly she feels a hand wrap around her arm and yank her back. She stumbles and falls backwards, but before she hits the ground two strong arms catch her. She looks up to see Michael’s enchanting eyes staring down at her as his brown hair falls in front of his face. He smiles and helps her stand back up.

“Come on.” He says, grabbing her hand in his and walking away from the Great Hall.

“Where are we going?” She asks as she follows him.

He smiles mischievously. “That, my lady, is a secret.”

Wisteria blushes as she realizes that her hand is still in his, but does nothing about it. His hand is surprisingly soft and gentle, as well as comfortably warm. As he continues to lead her through the hallways she starts to recognize less and less.

“Honestly Michael, where are we going? I’ve never even been to this part of the castle before!”

“Oh calm down will you. I’m not going to murder you or rape you or something. All we want to do is surprise you.”

“’We’?” Wisteria echoes. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“Just a few people. Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Michael-”

“Shhh.” He says suddenly. She opens her mouth to speak, but shushes her again before she can. Wisteria gapes at him and he smiles sheepishly as her before saying, “Watch this.” He paces back and forth three times and suddenly a door appears on the wall opposite to him. Her jaw drops.

“What is going on?” She whispers and he smiles at her.

“You go to a magic school remember? Now follow me.” He grabs her hand again and drags her through the newly appeared door. Inside the room are Jane, Christine, Shannon, Penelope, Lily, Severus, James, Sirius, Peter, Remus, and a few other people that she doesn’t recognize. The room almost looks like a living room, there’s a couch and a few chairs and a fireplace and a table full of food off to one side with presents underneath it.

“What is all this?” Wisteria asks Michael.

“What does it look like?” He asks. “You didn’t think we wouldn’t find out when your birthday was, did you?”

“I was kinda hoping you wouldn’t. I don’t like people making huge deals out of my birthday.”

“Well, too bad.” Michael says, wrapping his strong arms around her in a hug. “Happy birthday.” She hugs him back and they stay like that for a while before she pulls away and looks around the room again. “Peter, James, Remus, and Sirius wanted to have a huge party for you two, but I managed to convince them that you would both prefer a smaller gathering with friends.”

“You were right. Thank you so much!”

“Of course my lady. It was no trouble at all.”

“Why are you calling me ‘my lady’ all of the sudden?”

“Because I have found you to be worthy of that title. Would you prefer I call you something different? Lady Wisteria? Lady Wisty? Lady Sofia? Lady Evans? My princess? My queen?”

Wisteria blushes. “Why not simply call me Wisteria or Wisty, like everyone else?”

“Because you deserve much more than being addressed in the same manner as a commoner.”

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “Fine. If you insist on addressing me as nobility then ‘my lady’ will do.” Michael smiles at her.

“Wisty!” Lily calls, rushing over to her sister. “Come, come, you must meet my friends!” Lily leads her over to the group of girls that she didn’t know.

“This is Marlene McKinnon.” She says, gesturing to one of the girls. Marlene is beautiful and has a reputation, much like Sirius, of being a bit of a player. She has long, blond hair that is perfectly curled all the time and never looks bad. Her eyes are a bright blue that probably seem hypnotic to most boys.  _ Over all,  _ Wisteria thinks to herself, _ she is way too pretty and tries way too hard for being an 11-year-old girl.  _ Marlene extends her hand to be shaken and gives Wisteria a smile that seems genuine enough. Wisteria takes her hand and smiles back before her sister introduces the next person.

“This is Emmeline Vance.” Lily gestures to a girl with shoulder length brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, she looks a little more grown into herself than everyone else here, which makes sense seeing as she’s a third year. Emmeline is nothing special in appearance, but she is top of her class in academics. She too extends her hand for Wisteria to shake as she mumbles a greeting.

“This is Mary Macdonald.” Continues Lily. This next girl has short, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a heart shaped face. She was short and looked a lot younger than 11-years-old. Instead of shaking Wisteria’s hand like the two before her, she gives her a warm hug, causing Wisteria to smile.

“This is Alice Fortesque.” Alice has short, dirty blonde hair, and eyes the color of honey. She was well known around the school for being one of the best spell casters in her class and being a part of a prominent pure-blood family. Alice gives Wisteria a big smile and says, “I love your hair.”

“They are just the sweetest girls you will ever meet!” Lily tells Wisteria. “I’m sure you’ll all get along great!”

“From what you’ve told me, I think that I agree.” Wisteria tells her sister.

“May I just say that you are probably the luckiest girl alive.” Marlene says suddenly.

Wisteria looks shocked. “Why on Earth would you think that?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Poor Lily was escorted to this party by the pretty boys over there.” Marlene says, gesturing the where Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus were talking to Wisteria’s friends.

“So?” Wisteria asks confused.

“Well, while she had to deal with them the whole way here _you_ were escorted by someone who is by far the most attractive boy in this school.”

A blush comes to Wisteria’s cheeks as she turns to look at Michael who is currently standing over by the snack table. She can’t deny that he is incredibly attractive, but she never thought of him as looking better than _every_ boy in this school.

“So?” She asks again. “He’s just a nice guy. He would’ve done that for anyone on their birthday.”

The girls laugh. “No, he wouldn’t.” Alice says.

“Well how would you know that?” Wisteria asks, feeling like she’s being made fun of.

“Because Michael doesn’t like to interact with other students.” Mary says.

“He’s a total loner and completely ignores any attempt made at becoming his friend.” Alice tells her.

“He hates nearly everyone at this school.” Marlene says.

“Except, it seems, you.” Lily speaks up. “Don’t you remember me telling you all of this over Christmas holiday?”

“Well… yes. But I didn’t believe you then and I don’t believe you now either.”

“Well darling, I’ll prove it to you.” Marlene says. “I’m going to try to talk to him.” She walks over to Michael who had been looking disapprovingly at Sirius who is flirting with Christine. When Marlene gets close to him, Michael takes his eyes away from Sirius and Christine and looks at Marlene.

“Hello.” Marlene says, speaking loud enough for Wisteria to hear. “Do you like Quidditch?” She asks as a conversation starter.

“Not really.” Michael says simply, looking away from her and bringing his drink to his lips.

“Well I think you would be good at it. You have the right build for it. Have you ever considered trying out for the team?”

“No.”

“You’re quite the conversationalist.” She says, laughing softly at herself.

“Have you paused to considered that perhaps I simply don’t wish to talk to you?”

“You’re at a party. Parties are social events, that means you have to be social.”

“I’m here for Wisteria, I have no interest in anyone else here.”

Without another word, Marlene walks back over to us. “I told you.” She says. “He only cares about you. Every girl in school is jealous.”

“Of what?” Wisteria asks. “We’re nothing more than friends and we wont ever be anything more than friends. There’s nothing to be jealous of!”

“Oh please, you can’t possibly tell us you don’t have a crush on him.” Mary says.

“So what if I do? That doesn’t change that we wont be more than friends.”

“Still, you get to spend time with him when he wont let anyone else near him.” Marlene says.

“Oh and I suppose that you would love to be in my position.” Wisteria says, rolling her eyes.

“Of course I would!” Marlene says. “I mean who wouldn’t? You get to see his beautiful eyes, feel his soft hair, be held in his strong arms.”

Wisteria blushes, but before she can say anything more Penelope, Shannon, and Jane make their way over. “Sirius started flirting with Christy and we can’t pull her away now.” Penelope says.

“Don’t make a big deal out of nothing Pen. You know how Christy is, she falls for every guy willing to hold a conversation with her.” Shannon says, rolling her eyes.

“I’m with Shay on this one.” Jane says. “Even if they do date, it will only last a few weeks and then he’ll break up with her.”

“Yeah, but then we have to deal with her clutching to him at every opportunity while they’re dating. Even once they break up we’ll have to suffer through her depressed attitude and bitching about how horrible he is.” Wisteria points out.

“And we’ll support her through the whole thing because we are good friends.” Shannon says.

“Are we?” Wisteria asks, causing the girls to laugh.

“Wisty!” Shannon shouts.

“What? I was only joking!”

The girls laugh and it gets the attention of James, Peter, and Remus.

“What’s so funny over here?” James says, strutting confidently up to the group of girls.

“Your face.” Wisteria and Penelope say at the same time. They glace at each other and smirk while Lily, Shannon, Alice, and Marlene roll their eyes and everyone else laughs.

“So you were talking about me then, Lily?” James says, a small glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Actually we were just about to open presents.” Michael says as he walks up behind Wisteria.

“Hello _Badger_.”

“Potter.” Michael says as he glares at James.

“I believe that someone mentioned presents?” Lily speaks up as she begins walking to the table. They all follow and one by one, Lily and Wisteria open their presents.

Lily gets a few bracelets from Emmeline, a dress from Marlene, an adorable teddy bear from Mary, a book from Alice, and Remus, James, Peter, and Sirius all pitched in to get her different candies from the wizard world, everything from Chocolate Frogs and Peppermint Toads to Berty Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.

Wisteria gets the same thing as Lily from the boys, a few records for her record player from Jane, a new jacket from Christine, some new shoes form Penelope, a wizard book from Shannon, and a silver necklace from Michael.

The twins thank their friends for the presents and the group spends so much time in the room hanging out and talking that they were out until an hour past curfew. After Michael realized this they all snuck their way back to their common rooms, trying desperately not to get caught, and had a fun story to tell anyone who hadn’t been there when they woke up the next morning.


	8. Year 1 - Part 8

Wisteria walks through the halls alone on her way to the owlery to send a letter to her mother. When she gets there she takes the letter out and reads through it one more time to be sure that she wrote down everything she wanted to say.

_ Dear Mother, _

_Lily and I had an amazing birthday; you wont believe how beautiful the necklace I got from Michael is. You would absolutely love Michael. Enough about my friends though, I always write to you about my friends. This time I want to tell you about the classes I’m taking. I know you might not understand much of it, but I will try to talk about it in a way that makes it easier for you._

_ My favorite classes by far are Astronomy and Flying. I know I’ve talked about flying before and I know that Lily isn’t very fond of it, but I absolutely love it. You of all people understand how much I love being up high and feeling the wind on my face. _

_ Anyway, Astronomy is exactly the same as the class that I would have taken at any muggle school, which makes it feel more homely than any of my other classes. Once again, you of all people know that I am a night owl and have always adored the night sky. I take that class on Wednesday’s at midnight and most people hate it and can’t stay awake, but I love it. Right now we’re sticking primarily to learning the names and movements of planets. _

_ My favorite teachers are probably Professor McGonagall and Professor Renshaw. McGonagall teaches Transfigurations, which I am mediocre at. Transfigurations is on Thursdays and there is so much to remember in that class. The Professor truly is amazing though. She is the leader of Lily’s house, so I’m sure that Lily has told you all about her. Professor Renshaw teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA), which sounds a lot scarier than it actually is. That is one of my favorite classes as well, but it is a lot harder for me than Astronomy and Flying combined. I start my week with DADA, which means that before lunch I’ve already encountered anything from Gnomes and Imps to Bowtruckles (which are possibly the cutest creatures I have ever seen). On top of a really cool class in general, Professor Renshaw is Pen’s aunt. You remember me talking about my friend Penelope right? Well her aunt is just as cool as her. Unfortunately being best friend with her niece doesn’t get me special treatment in any way, but I don’t mind so much. _

_ On the other hand, if I get out of doing a few assignments in my Charms or out of class in general in History of Magic, I would be the happiest girl alive. Charms is the most difficult class I’ve ever had to take. I’m not nearly as skilled at the parts of school that are purely magic, unlike most of my friends. History of Magic is a class that I thought I would love and honestly, I find the topics fascinating. That is, when they are in a book and not being told to us by Professor Binns. He is dreadfully boring. His voice drones on and on with no emotion and that’s ignoring the fact that he is literally a ghost. That’s right, a ghost. It’s so bad that even  _ I  _ fall asleep in class half the time. The only reason I’m at the top of my year in that class is because after class I ask him for books on the subjects and I learn the material that way. _

_ The two classes that I remain neutral on are Herbology and Potions. Herbology is basically like a gardening class, except the plant can kill you. It’s not hard, but it’s a little nerve racking early on a Monday morning. Potions is at the end of the week. This class isn’t very hard either, it’s basically like an odd mix of cooking and chemistry, but I don’t like the teacher for it at all. His name is Professor Slughorn and he loves to teach the kids with exceptional talent. He has this thing that he calls a “Slug Club” where he invites the kids in the school that stand out the most to hang out and trade stories. Then when they leave the school they stay in touch with him and he gets to say that he knew and supported all of these great people. It basically just makes him look better in the public eye. I haven’t been invited to join the Slug Club, but Lily has. She excels at everything. She’s the top of our class overall and is loved by everyone. Especially James Potter. He’s still head over heels for her. _

_ Anyway, the boys are fine and so are Lily and I’s girl friends. I miss you so much mum! Tell Petunia and dad that I send my love. _

_ Love your daughter, Wisteria _

Wisteria nods in approval and attaches the letter to the leg of a barn owl. The owl flies away and Wisteria turns to leave. As soon as she looks up she sees Mercury Black standing in the doorway, flanked by a large, dark skinned guy and a small, dainty looking Asian girl.

The three of them look at Wisteria, the same disdainful look on all of their faces. Mercury starts to walk into the room and the moment he moves the other two move with him. The girls heels sound like glass as they tap against the floor of the owlery and even the owls seem to shy away from the brooding figure of the man standing to Mercury’s other side. Wisteria gulps and holds her breath as she very carefully begins to move past them. Mercury walks past her and the other two are right next to her when it happens.

With a small flick of Mercury’s wrist, the other two suddenly spring into action. The big guy grabs Wisteria’s arms and roughly yanks them behind her back, his hands squeezing her wrists so hard that she thought they might break. He then kicks the back of her knees and she falls to the floor, the impact sending jolts up her body. Before Wisteria can even breathe she feels the tip of a wand poking into the side of her neck. Without moving her head, she glances to the side to see the dainty Asian girl smiling sweetly at her.

Wisteria’s heart pounds as her eyes dart back to the front of her while Mercury looks at her.

“It really is a shame” Mercury says, his voice smooth and captivating, but with a coldness underneath that unnerves Wisteria. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, and seem like a decent person. If you weren’t a  _ Mudblood _ I might even like you.” There is a response sitting on the tip of Wisteria’s tongue, but she is nowhere near brave enough to reply. Mercury sees the helpless and terrified look on her face and laughs. “We’re not going to do anything to you. You don’t actually interest us much.” Wisteria’s heart is now pounding so hard that she can barely hear anything else and she’s almost positive that she’s going to pass out. Confusion mixes into the expression of terror on her face and the smile drops from Mercury’s face. He pulls out his wand and looks at his in a bored way. It doesn’t look like he’s going to use it, but it still scares Wisteria stiff. “I only wanted to warn you.”

Wisteria gulps and manages to suck in enough air to choke out a feeble response. “A-about w-w-what?”

Mercury looks at her with interest and smirks as he starts walking toward her. Her eyes grow wide and her whole body starts shaking uncontrollably from fear as he crouches down in front of her and grabs a handful of her hair, forcing her head up so that she has to look him in the eye. His eyes stone cold, brown eyes glare into her terror filled, hazel ones and he says in a slow, dangerous voice, “Stay away from my little brother.” He lets go of her hair and stands back up, moving away from her as his friends let go of her as well. With her hands how free and a wand no longer stabbing into her neck, Wisteria falls forward onto her hands and sucks in huge gulps of air. “My brother may be a blood-traitor” Mercury adds, “but I don’t need you dirtying our family name even more.”

The big, dark skinned guy grabs Wisteria’s bicep and practically drags her out of the owlery. Finally out of the room currently containing the three scariest people she has ever met, Wisteria collapses to the floor and runs a shaking hand through her hair.

A few minutes later Michael is walking towards the Owlery and finds Wisteria leaning against a wall, taking shaky breaths and looking sick. He rushes over to her.

“Merlin’s beard. What happened?” He asks as he drapes her arm around his shoulder and wraps an arm around her waist, letting her lean up against him as he helps her to the infirmary.

“I was in the owlery, sending a letter to my mum. M-mercury Black walked in, with a couple other people and…”

“It’s okay.” Michael tells her as he smoothes out her hair, noticing when she flinches. “Let’s get you to Madame Pomfrey.”

When they get to the infirmary Madame Pomfrey heals up some bruising on Wisteria’s wrists, gives her a pain potion to get rid of her head ache, and gives her something to help with the shock. After being told that she could leave, Michael helps Wisteria to Ravenclaw tower and by the time they got there she had stopped shaking and was acting like herself again.

“Thank you, Michael. I really owe you one. Sorry for all the trouble, I don’t react well to situations like that.”

“Don’t apologize. You can’t help it that those Slytherins are assholes. Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. After all, the girls are probably wondering were I’ve been. Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good night my lady.”   horizon. She managed to sneak back inside without waking anyone and after falling asleep she didn't wake up until after noon. 


	9. Year 1 - Part 9

       A couple months have gone by in what feels like no time at all. Finals are coming up in a month or so and Wisteria and her friends don't seem to be able to get much of a break from homework, but when they do they make the most of it. They are sitting near the Black Lake in a spot that they have claimed as their own as they finish up their last bit of homework before the weekend begins.

       "All of this work is stressing me out. We should have a night to ourselves tomorrow. I can get Michael to help me grab some food and drinks from the kitchen beforehand and then we could just camp out in our room for the day." Wisteria says from up in the tree that everyone else is sitting under. "What do you guys say?"

       "We could play a few games, listen to your record player, and just talk I guess." Penelope says.

       "I like the sound of that." Shannon agrees.

       "Yeah, sounds like a plan, but Wisty?" Jane asks. Wisteria looks down at her and raises an eyebrow in response. "How did you get up in that tree?"

       Wisteria laughs. "I climbed. It's not that hard when you've been climbing trees since you could walk."

       "Are you not afraid of falling out?" Shannon asks. "I would be terrified up there."

       "I've never been afraid of heights. I love it up here, you can see everything so much better." Wisteria looks at world around her and smiles before moving her eyes back to her friends. "Christy, you haven't said whether or not you want to spend tomorrow with us?"

       "Oh..." Christine says, looking a little nervous. "Right. Umm... I would love too, but..."

       "But what?" Penelope asks.

       "Well... I have plans."

       "Doing what? With who?" Shannon asks. "Do you have a date?" She smiles.

       "... Yes..." Christine answers.

       Shannon squeals and the other three girls smile.

       "With who?" Penelope asks.

       Christine looks embarrassed as she mumbles, "Sirius."

       Shannon squeals again, only louder, Jane and Wisteria congratulate her, and Penelope rolls her eyes.

       "I hope you don't expect that to last long." Penelope says. The smile falls from Christine's face as she looks at her friend. "I'm just saying. I mean, how many girlfriends has he had in this year alone?"

       "Oh come on. Our girl's got a date! Just be happy for her, will you? No need to poop her party just yet. We'll deal with a break up when it arrives." Wisteria says as she nudges Penelope with her shoulder and wraps Christine in a hug. "You enjoy your date. We'll just throw our party without you."

       Christine smiles and nods at her friend.

       A month later, Christine and Sirius are still dating and presumably a happy couple. Many people have begun to take notice that it may be the longest relationship Sirius has had so far. Christine gets jealous glares from many girls as she walks the halls with her hand in his. Finals are growing ever nearer and the stress is building, mainly among the older kids, but it's evident among the younger ones as well. 

       The day before finals begin Sirius, Peter, James, and Remus set up a small prank in the Grand Hall, so that the moment someone enters the room, they get hit with a random, minor transfiguration spell or charm. There are people with pig noses, rainbow hair, clothes that continuously change color, and many other things. The boys themselves have something different about them. James' glasses grew fur, Remus' book electrifies anyone who dares to touch it, including Remus, Sirius' ears were turned into those of a cat, and Peter grew a tail.

       This harmless prank either sent people over the edge, or saved them with a bit of laughter. Christine's hair turned purple as she stepped inside, Wisteria's nails change color every minute, and Shannon's quill sprouted a second feather and flew away. The three of them laughed and moved towards the Ravenclaw table to eat their breakfast, but stop when they notice Penelope and Jane. Jane's parchment folded itself into little people and is dancing around the room and Penelope's skin has turned green. Both girls are fuming with anger and look like they are ready to murder the boys who did this. Wisteria and Shannon rush forward to grab their friends and pull them to the table before they get the chance to act upon their anger.

       "Calm down, it's just a funny prank." Shannon says.

       "It's humiliating." Jane mumbles.

       "Nothing about this should be humiliating." Wisteria tells her. "Everyone has something off about them. Even the Professors!"She wasn't wrong, each of the professors had been affected by the spells. McGonnogal's hat was singing loudly from atop her head and Dumbledore's beard seemed to be noticeably growing, much faster than it should.

       "Yeah." Christine says. "The professors seem to be amused!"

       "They're probably just happy to know that those imbeciles have actually learned something, even if they are only using it for something as stupid as this." Penelope rants.

       "Exactly. It's just a stupid prank. Nothing to get worked up about."

       "I just wonder why Sirius didn't tell me that they were planning this prank." Christine wonders out loud.

       "He probably just wanted to surprise you." Shannon tells her.

       "Or he's lost interest in you." Penelope says. "When was the last time you guys actually spoke?"

       "Yesterday, actually." Christine says defensively.

       "Okay, well then when was the last time you guys went on a date, or spent time together outside of class?" Penelope asks.

       Christine freezes and Jane puts an arm around her. "Come on Pen, there's no need to be like that. Besides, even if it doesn't last between you two,"

       "You mean  _ when _ it doesn't last." Penelope mumbles.

       Jane gives her a look before turning back to Christine. "We'll be here for you the whole time."

       Christine nods her head. "I'm gonna go talk to him." She says before standing up and walking away. 

       As soon as she's out of ears reach Penelope speaks up again. "So how long do you think they'll last?" She asks. Shannon gives her a look and she shrugs her shoulders. "I'm just saying. I give it until the end of finals." 

       "I'm giving it until the end of the school year." Wisteria says. Shannon and Jane look at her in shock. "What? Relationships this young rarely last anyway. Besides this is Sirius we're talking about. The rest of us may not talk to him much, but we still know him enough to know that this wont last."

       "Still. She's our friend! We should be supportive." Shannon tells her.

       "I never said anything about not supporting her. I'm just being realistic." Wisteria argues.

       "Then instead of betting on when they'll break up you should be prepared for when they do." Jane says.

       "That's true. Knowing Christy, she probably wont take a break up well." Wisteria agrees.

       "We'll throw her a pity party." Penelope suggests. "We know her enough to know what will cheer her up. So we could just throw her a little pity party the night after he breaks up with her and do everything we can to help her get through it. We'll be fulfilling our duties as friends while being reasonable and knowing they wont last."

       "Fine." Shannon says. "But they haven't broken up yet, so don't get too excited."

       Wisteria looks up from her food and locks eyes with Michael from his seat at the Hufflepuff table. He stands up and starts to walk away while motioning for her to follow. 

       "I gotta go, I'll catch up with you guys later, kay?"

       "Where are you going?" Penelope asks.

       "Off to see Alderton are you?" Christine says with a playful smirk. 

       "Don't get your hopes up Christy." Wisteria tells her friend, rolling her eyes. "If I know that boy as well as I think I do, he has no interest in being in any romantic relationship."

       "But do you like him?" Shannon asks, causing Wisteria to blush. 

       "Well... Maybe... I-i have to go." Wisteria scrambles away as her friends laugh loudly at her response. She runs out of the Great Hall and finds Michael leaning casually up against a railing on one of the staircases. He looks up and smiles when he sees her before grabbing her hand and dragging her towards the front doors of the school. 

       "Where are we going?" Wisterias asks as she jogs a bit to catch up to him.

       "Outside." He turns and looks at her and she notices that his eyes had been turned purple by the prank that had been set in place. She giggles and little and says, "Nice eyes."

       He looks confused for a moment before realization seems to dawn on him. "Did those idiots prank do something weird to my eyes?"

       "They're purple." She tells him and laughs harder and he rolls his eyes. "My nails wont stop changing color." She tells him as she glances down at her now red nails.

       He looks at her hands and then smiles. "I almost can't believe that those idiots were smart enough to set up something like that."

       "They have Remus with them remember? They're not all idiots."

       Michael seems to consider this for a moment and then nods. "I suppose so. Most people here seem like idiots to me though."

       "That's because most people here are idiots compared to you."

       "You're not."

       "Yes, I am. You're the smartest kid in the entire year. Hell, you're probably better at magic than most of the second years too!"

       "I was considering asking Professor McGonnogall if I could take more advanced classes and maybe skip ahead a couple years." He confesses as they reach their usual tree by the Black Lake. He pulls himself up into the tree and then holds a helping hand down to Wisteria.

       She accepts it and follows him into the tree, sitting in front of him on a branch. "You could do it. I would feel pretty lonely without you in some of my classes, but you could definitely do it."

       "You wouldn't be  _ that _ lonely. You have your Ravenclaw friends."

       "They aren't you though." She looks up at him and he smiles softly at her.

       "I'll hold off for a while then. Maybe wait a few years before skipping ahead."

       "I don't want to hold you back."

       "I don't want to lose what little time I have with you. I'll stay in your year." Wisteria smiles to herself as he continues, "How are you feeling about the finals coming up?"

       "I'm not stressing. There's no need to. Not until fifth year at least."

       "I suppose that's true. You'll do fine I'm sure. You're a smart girl."

       Wisteria nods and smiles to herself. The two of them sit there in silence for a while until students started pouring outside for their classes. They hop out of the tree and Michael gives her a small bow and the two friends go to their separate classes.


	10. Year 1 - Part 10

Finals are over and with them gone the anticipation of the approaching summer was rising. There were only a couple days left before they went home and Wisteria was spending her last few days at the castle outside in the beautiful weather with her friends. Instead of climbing up into her usual tree as her friends sat under her, Wisteria had stretched herself out in the grass, her bare feet just barely able to reach the water of the Black Lake. 

       Penelope sits by Wisteria's head, braiding little bits of her hair to give herself something to do. Shannon and Jane were both leaned up against the trunk of the tree, with Jane sitting in the shadow. Lily and two of her friends Mary and Alice had joined them and were sitting on the shore of the lake, pant legs rolled up and loving the feeling of the cool water against their toes. The seven girls sit in silence as Christine approaches with Sirius, Peter, James, and Remus. 

       "You know Wisty, with that fair skin of yours you're bound to get a sunburn." Christine warns.

       "Oh come on Christy!" Wisteria says, a goofy grin making it's way onto her face. "What's life without a little danger? Being a redhead the sun may be my greatest enemy, but I wont let it bully me into sitting in the shade. I'll be fine, no need to worry."

       Christine rolls her eyes and sits down, leaning up against Sirius as he sits down as well. James chooses a spot a little closer to Lily, but a safe enough distance for her not to be able to hit him, should the desire arise.         

"My precious Lily-pad." He says and everyone notices her good mood vanish. "I regret to inform you that I can see your ankle. I'm afraid that is much too scandalous for school attire and insist that you cover them. They are far too enticing. If you don't I may lose control and get an irresistible urge to kiss you." 

       Lily quickly pulls her feet in, rolls down her pant legs, and swiftly walks away without saying a word. Alice and Mary sigh as they get up to follow her. 

       "Smooth James." Alice says as she walks past him.

       James frowns and Sirius laughs at the pout on his friends face. "Better luck next time James." James glares at him, making Sirius laugh even more. "Sorry mate. Not all of us can be as lucky as I am when it comes to girls."

       His arm tightens around Christine's waist and as Wisteria sits up she can see Christine beaming. 

       "So what plans do you all have for the break?" Peter asks and Shannon frowns.

       "Oh yeah. I forgot we'll have to leave here soon."

       "It'll be fine. Not being here means no homework or grumpy teachers! Plus we get to be home, in our own beds. That's always nice. Even if family isn't. I know I'm not necessarily looking forward to living with my little brother and sister again." Jane says.

       "My home isn't too much different from being here. I mean, sure it's not a castle and I don't have to homework, but my aunt has raised my sister and I for almost as long as I can remember and she treats me there just like she does here. School, home, it doesn't matter much to me." Penelope says and the girls look at her, somewhat shocked. She had never said anything about her aunt raising her...

       "Well at my house I have to deal with my annoying little brother and overbearing mom. My dad's fine, but he works for the Ministry and is almost never home." Shannon tells the girls. 

       "I've always liked my family and life at home. To be honest, I've been a little homesick. It'll be nice to be with my parents again." Wisteria says.

       "My dad left my mom when I was really little, so I basically just have her and my brother to deal with. They mostly leave me alone, so it's not so bad." Christine shares. "What about you Siri?" She asks.

       Sirius looks caught off guard for a moment, but quickly regains his usual cool. "I've got my mom, dad, and two brothers, but they typically stay outta my hair." He says dismissively. 

       "Well I've got it made." James brags as he lays back in the grass. "Rich, and totally awesome parents, even if they are a little embarrassing sometimes. I can basically get anything I want."

       "Well, aren't you a lucky ducky." Wisteria says rolling her eyes. "The one thing that I wish I could do when I got back would be to see all of my old friends. I miss them."

       "Ooh! Tell us about some of them!" Shannon urges.

       "Yeah, you hardly ever mention them." Christine says.

       "Well, there weren't many. I had Lizzy and Tori. They were by far my best friends. And then there was John..." Wisteria's eyes drift to Sirius as she mentions this because of how he reminds her of John every now and then.

       "John?" Penelope says, wiggling her eyebrows.

       "Who's John?" Michael asks as he approaches. 

       Wisteria's face flushes red and she quickly says, "No one."

       "No, no, no. You can't just hide away now! Come on! Who is he?" Christine pushes.

       "He's my ex-boyfriend." Wisteria mumbles, keeping her head down. She looks up when she feels something next to her and finds that Michael has sat down close enough to her for their arms to brush up against each other. She feels her face grow warm, but luckily everyone else just brushed it off as her reaction to talking about her ex. 

       "You had a boyfriend?" Jane asks.

       "Well, yeah."

       "What was he like?" Penelope asks.

       "Actually... He was quite like Sirius." She says. He looks at he in surprise. "I mean, he was the guy all the girls wanted and he was carefree and I don't know. He just... Sirius reminds me of him..." Her face heats up even more and Wisteria want's nothing more than to hide away in some little corner of the school. "Not that I like you, Sirius! I mean... I don't like you, I like someone... else... I think I'm just gonna go finish reading that book I started reading last night." Wisteria stood up and walked away with her face as red as a tomato as her friends roared with laughter behind her. Wisteria was almost back the school when she notices someone following her and turns around to see Michael.

       "Mind if I join you?" He asks. "It's been a while since I've read a good book. You could read yours to me."

       Wisteria smiles. "Sure. We could go to that room where we had the party for Lily and I's birthday." She suggests.

       "The Room of Requirements?"

       "Is that what it's called? You never did tell me anything about it."

       "Oh yeah. Well, I suppose I could do that now."

       "Great, I'll go grab my book and you can explain on our way there."

       "Let's just go straight there."

       "But I need the book if I'm going to read it."

       "Don't worry." He says with a playful smile on his face. "The will provide you with what you need."

       "What?" 

       "I'll show you, come one." 

       Together, the two of them walk through the halls of the castle and finally find themselves in the hallway where Wisteria distinctly remembers there once was a door. A door that had appeared out of nowhere and had seemingly vanished into nothingness once again. 

       "The Room of Requirements is a place in the castle that you can only find when you have a specific need in mind. You think it, come here, and it will provide it." Michael explains.

       "I don't think I follow." Wisteria says as she tries to understand.

       "Pace back and forth three times while thinking about needing a place to read your book." Wisteria opens her mouth to respond, but he holds up a hand to cut her off. "Just do it." 

       She closes her mouth and obeys, silently pacing in front of an empty wall while focusing on her need to find a place to read a book. As she makes her third lap a door suddenly appears on the wall, just like it did on her birthday. Wisteria steps forward and swings the door open to find a room much different from the one her party was in. This one is smaller and looks like a small library. The walls are covered in books and there’s enough room for a couch in the center with lamps sitting to either side of it to provide light to the room. Wisteria walks in, Michael right behind her. He walks over to the couch and sits down as Wisteria plucks a book off of one of the shelves. 

       Michael smiles and says, "So, I believe you told me you would read me a story?"

       A couple days later the ride back to Platform 9 3/4 was uneventful as the girls chatted about their plans and made plans to meet up. Eventually they decided that they would start at Wisteria's house and slowly make their was through each of each others homes. Wisteria, then Jane, then Christine, then Shannon, and then they would end their summer at Penelope's place. 

       Knowing that she would be seeing them all soon made it easier for Wisteria to say farewell to them. As they all moved off the train, Sirius and Christine stayed back for a moment. When the two of them finally joined the others on the Platform, Christine was crying. Shannon and Jane went to her side immediately, asking what happened. As sneakily as she could, Penelope slid the Galleon that she now owed to Wisteria into her hand before moving to comfort her sobbing friend who had just been broken up with.  
  



	11. Summer

       Not even a week later Jane, Christine, Shannon, and Penelope showed up on Wisteria's doorstep to spend a week or so at the Evans household. The moment they arrived Petunia mumbled something about going to their cousins for a while and was gone within the hour. 

       Wisteria was a little disheartened at her sister's resentment of her friends, and even herself, but didn't let it bother her too long. She showed the girls where they would be sleeping. With Petunia now gone and Lily spending the week at Alice's house, there were two free beds for them to choose from. Shannon and Christine called Lily's room, Wisteria and Jane called Wisteria's room, and Penelope was happy to have Petunia's room all to herself. 

       "Our curfew here is midnight and my parents don't really care where all we go as long as we're careful and safe." Wisteria tells the girls as they sit in the living room planning out their activities for their stay. "That means that we can essentially do anything. There are parks and malls within walking distance. We could go to London, but that's a bit far so we would have to get my parents to drive us."

       "I like the idea of going to a mall." Christine says. "It's been a while since I've been to one."

       "I want a lazy day every other day." Penelope tells them. 

       "I second that." Agrees Jane. "My favorite days are ones when I have no plans."

       "Okay, but first and foremost will be Christy's pity party. That will be tomorrow and then the next day will be a lazy day, then we can go to the mall, then another lazy day, then-"

       "I want to go to a book store." Shannon says. "I've never been to a muggle book store. I could probably spend all day in one if it was big enough."

       "Book store it is then. After that it would be another lazy day and the we could spend the next day outside. We wouldn't even have to do anything. It's nice outside if you pick the right day and most days around here in the summer are really nice."

       "Ooh! We could have a picnic!" Penelope exclaims

       "I like that idea." Christine agrees. 

       "Great! So, lazy day, mall, lazy day, book store, lazy day, picnic, lazy day, and by then it will be time to get our stuff together and get to Jane's house."

       "Yay, we did it." Penelope says in a monotone voice. "I'm going to bed."

       Wisteria scrunches up her face in confusion and looks at the clock to find the time to be 11:30 pm. "Oh, I guess it is late. Okay, tomorrow, be prepared to make pancakes."

       Christine and Shannon laugh as they walk into Lily's room, Penelope collapses onto Petunia's bed, not even bothering to close the door, and Jane and Wisteria crawl into bed as well. Jane falls asleep in almost no time at all, but it takes Wisteria a while longer, her inner night owl telling her to stay awake and see the world at night as it's lit up by stars, but her more sensible voice reminding her that she has guests and can't stay up all night and sleep all day like she typically does when she's at home. 

       As usual, Wisteria is the last person awake. She groans as the sun wakes her and stumbles out of bed and down the hallway into the kitchen. By the time she gets there all the girls are already flipping pancakes and seeing what weird shapes they can get them into. Penelope slides her a plate with a pile of things that resembled pancakes.

       "You're the last one awake, we decided that that meant you get the deformed ones." Mrs. Evans explains. 

       "Gee, thanks mom."

       "Hey, they're still pancakes."

       "I suppose so."

       "How are you sleepy head?" Mr. Evans asks as he leaves the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hand.

       "Tired." Wisteria grumbles in response.

       "We gathered that much." Christine says, rolling her eyes. "How did you sleep?"

       "I didn't."

       "Yeah, I could tell." Jane says. "You were tossing and turning all night. It kept waking me up."

       "Sorry. If I had the choice I would be nocturnal. Unfortunately that's not an option for any functional human being."

       "Who said you had to be functional?" Jane asks.

       "Society."

       "Screw society." Penelope says in an unusually cheerful voice.

       "Screw you." Wisteria mumbles. "Pass me the syrup."

       "Geez. I thought it was just school that made you grumpy in the morning, but you're still like that,"

       "Always has been." Mrs. Evans call from the dining room. "And probably always will be." 

       "Well, good for you that we decided to make today a lazy day." Shannon says as she flips another pancake.

       "Your welcome." Penelope calls sweetly.

       Wisteria rolls her eyes as a smile comes to her face and shoves a forkful of syrup drenched pancakes in her mouth.

       They spent the rest of the day sitting in the living room. They started off talking to Christy about Sirius and slowly shifted the conversation elsewhere. They listened to some of her favorite songs and let her choose what they did all day. By the end of it the girls could mention Sirius' name without getting too bad of a reaction from Christine and their job was done.

       The next week went by really quickly. They got to the mall as soon as it opened and barely left before closing time. They went into nearly every shop and spent at least half of the money they brought and came back with bags of everything from trinkets to clothes.

       They spent their second free day evaluating what they had bought the previous day. They tried on clothes again, held their own makeshift fashion show using each other as models, and then made a fun game out of finding random objects in the house and coming up with ridiculous sales pitches for them.

       After that, Wisteria did as promised and took them to the biggest book store around and Shannon wasn't lying about being able to spend all day in there. She seemed to want to look at every book in the entire store. That was were they spent most of there remaining money and wound up spending the next day in almost complete silence as all five of them read through their new collection of books.

       Finally they had their day in the park. They went swimming in a public pool, tried to one-up each others tricks on the bars, and sat around eating little sandwiches they had made early that morning.

       The next day was yet another lazy day. They mostly lounged around in different places throughout the house. Shannon and Christine were still reading, Penelope was taking a nap, and Jane was listening to different records. Wisteria used this time to sit down and write to Michael, she hadn't talked to him since summer began. As she sat down to write she took a moment to think about what to say before putting her pen to the paper.

_ Dear Michael, _

_        Sorry I haven't written you sooner, but I've actually had quite a bit going on. The girls are here right now, they are all off doing their own things so I figured now was the best time to write to you. How has your summer been so far? Mine's been pretty good. I got a few new books and they're really good. I've only been able to finish two of them so far, but I'm confident I'll have the rest finished before school starts back up again. _

_        It feels kinda weird writing to you. It's like, talking to you feels so natural, but when I can't actually hear your voice... I guess it just makes me miss you. If you ever get the opportunity to meet up with me I would love to see you. It already feels like I haven't seen you in ages.  _

_        My mom tried to make some weird type of tea yesterday and the reactions from the girls were priceless! Granted, whatever she did it tasted awful, but it worth it to see their reactions. Christy looked like she was going to throw up, Shay managed to swallow it, but she looked like she regretted it immediately, Jane smelled it first and then refused to drink it, and Penelope just flat out spit it out of her mouth. They were horrified that my mom would be offended at first, but my mom's really cool about that stuff. _

_        You would like my mom.You should come over sometime. My sister Petunia probably wouldn't like you, but she doesn't like most people. _

_        Anyway, I hope to hear back from you soon. I'll be going to Jane's house soon, so you can send your reply there. _

_                                                                                                                -Wisteria Evans _


	12. Summer

      Next the girls went to Jane's house. Mr. and Mrs. Tuft are nice and slightly over protective, making Wisteria feel more at home since her parents are similar. Jane also happens to have two little siblings. A brother who is four years younger than her and a sister who is five years younger than her. Overall the family resemblance between the five Tuft's was extremely obvious. They each had a small lisp when they spoke, they each had dirty blonde hair and dull blue eyes and they all had the same sense of humor. 

       Upon arriving at their house the girls were "banished", as Mr. Tuft put it, to the basement. The basement was basically an apartment. It had two queen sized beds, a couch, a living room with a bunch of bean bags surrounding a coffee table, and a little kitchen and bathroom. There was almost no need for the girls to ever leave the basement, so for the majority of the week they didn't. They made periodic trips to the world above to collect ingredient to cook their food with and to send any letter they wanted to send. On the third day Mrs. Tuft knocked on the door to the basement and slid a letter under the door. The girls raced to the door to see who it was for and Penelope got to it first. She snatched it up and a teasing smile came to her face.

       "Who is it from? Who is it for?" Christine asks.

       Penelope clears her throat and begins to read, "My Lady Evans" She starts and Wisteria dashes forwards, a blush rising to her cheeks as the other girls laugh. Penelope manages to successfully keep the letter out of Wisteria's reach as she continues reading it aloud. "I was very happy to hear from you, I was beginning to feel lonely without you to talk to. My summer has been decent I suppose. Despite being with family, I feel alone at home. I wish I could have stayed at Hogwarts, not that that feels much like home either, but it certainly feels better when you're here." Penelope stops reading as a chorus of "aww"'s echo from the mouths of Shannon, Jane, and Christine. 

       Wisteria finally manages to grab the letter from Penelope's hands and clutches it to her chest before anyone can take it from her again. The girls laugh and she rolls her eyes. "I'll be back in a little while." She says grabbing a parchment, ink, and quill along with the letter from Michael and walking upstairs. She sits down on the couch and continues reading his letter to her.

_ My brother is currently preparing to leave for America, so it is a little hectic around my house. I don't know when I will be free, but I promise to let you know as soon as I am. I miss you too. _

       Wisteria notices an odd splotch of ink right after that sentence and then the words pick up again below.

_ My dog heard the scratching of the quill on parchment and came to investigate. He's a Pit Bull and his name is Tesla. Do you like animals? I feel like in the year that I've known you, I've never asked if you liked animals. I certainly do. Animals are much easier to understand and tolerate than humans. Then again, that might just be me being weird. I'm going to tell my owl where to go. Hopefully he understands. His name is Arsenic by the way. Do you like him? My father got him for me. I can't wait for you next letter. Write soon, okay? _

_                                                                                                               -Michael Alderton _

       Wisteria smiles to herself and prepares to write a response. A few minutes later she finds his owl still sitting on the kitchen counter and smiles as she looks at it. It's a barn owl and it's absolutely beautiful. She ties the letter to it's leg and as it flies off Wisteria resents the idea of going back downstairs. She's been inside for far too long. 

       Later that night, everyone is asleep and it's close to 1 am when Wisteria decides to get out. As silently as she can she climbs the stairs and walks right out the front door. She didn't go far, just to the edge of the front yard before she sat down in the grass and looked at the stars above. The stars here weren't quite as visible as they were at Hogwarts, but they were more visible than the ones back at her house. As she stares up at the stars she finds herself think, not for the first time, about Michael.

       She couldn't get the color of his eyes, the feel of his hand in hers, or the smell of his soap out of her mind. Even now she could imagine him sitting next to her. She would say something stupid and he would laugh. The smile would light up his whole face, making his eyes seem brighter than before and showing off his dimples. She could picture him shifting the way that he was sitting so that his arm brushed hers and she could almost feel the tingling sensation she got from it. 

       Wisteria sat out there until the sun started to make is climb over the horizon. She managed to sneak back inside without waking anyone and after falling asleep she didn't wake up until after noon. 


	13. Summer

The summer was nearly halfway over by the time they made it to Christine's. Wisteria and Michael wrote to each other as often as they could and the girls could see the excitement practically radiating off of her when a new letter showed up from him. She fed a treat to the owl and then took the letter from it, reading the short note written on it.

_ Wisteria, _

_        Sorry about everything. Don't write again. _

_                                                               -Michael Alderton _

       Wisteria reads over the short note a few times before setting it down and writing a response. Penelope, who seems to be able to sense when something is wrong, comes over and picks up the note.

       "He says he doesn't want another letter." She states.

       "Well too bad, he's getting one." Wisteria sighs. "I just want to know what happened." Wisteria sounds sure of herself, but she doesn't have any clue if it will work or not. She hopes that he gets the letter and actually responds.

       After handing the letter off to his owl and watching him fly away Wisteria sits there for a moment biting her lip.

       "Nope." Penelope says. "We're not doing this."

       Wisteria looks up at her, confused. "Doing what?"

       "Moping around because of some guy. We already got Christy over it. I'm not about to go through that with you. And you guys weren't even dating! So no, you're not going to mope. You are going to get some practice in."

       "Practice?"

       "Christy!" Penelope yells.

       "Yeah?"

       "Where does your brother keep his Quidditch gear?"

       "In the shed in the back. Are we gonna play?"

       "Yup."

       "Yes! We wont have enough equipment for a full team, but we can play two v. two."

       "Sounds perfect." Penelope says, turning to the other girls. "Well, come on. Let's go play some Quidditch. 

       A few minutes later all five girls are stood outside with brooms in their hands.

       "Okay girls." Christine says. "Two people per team, one chaser, one keeper. Shay you'll be the Seeker. Game is over when she catches the snitch, but her catching the snitch doesn't get anyone any points. We'll be playing with one quaffle and no bludgers since we've only got one chaser per team and no beaters. Now, who wants to be a chaser?"

       Penelope raises her hand and Christy smiles. "Great. Pen and Wisty, you're a team and Jane and I will be the other team with myself as the chaser. We'll switch the teams up after each game." 

       Wisteria walks over to Penelope who gives her a rough slap on the back. "Come on teammate. You better not get distracted up there or I'll have to beat you for making me lose."

       There was not one doubt in Wisteria's mind that Penelope would do just that. She smiles and nods as the five friends take flight. Wisteria flies over to the makeshift goal posts stuck into the ground on one side of the pitch and Penelope takes her place to guard her. Christine waits for everyone to get settled before releasing the snitch and taking the first swing at the quaffle. 

       Penelope snatches the quaffle from the air and races towards Christine and Jane. The ball flies back and forth a few times before making it past Penelope and coming straight for Wisteria. With some incredible stroke of luck she manages to stay on her broom.

       Wisteria throws the ball back into the fray and blocks two more shots before one makes it through.

       "Come on Pen!" She yells at her teammate. "I can't be a perfect Keeper all the time, you've gotta do your part too you know!"

       "Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it." Penelope yells back.

       An hour later, Christine has gotten another three shots past Wisteria and Jane hasn't been able to block any of the, admittedly few, shots that Penelope has managed. Finally Shannon finds and captures the snitch and with the final score being 50-40 and Penelope and Wisteria coming out on top, all of the girls too tired to even consider a rematch. They tiredly stumble back inside and Christine mumbles something about a shower before wandering off as the others flop down on the chairs in the living room. 

       "I didn't think catching that snitch would be so hard." Shannon says. "I'm gonna have to practice if I want to be the Seeker next year."

       "After that terrible performance, there's no way I'm trying out." Jane says.

       "Same here." Penelope agrees. "I'm not much of a sports person anyway.

       "Wisty, you and Christy were amazing though!" Jane praises.

       Wisteria feels a blush rising to her already flushed cheeks. "I wasn't that great. And even if I was, the captain of our team is a Keeper, I wouldn't be able to play."

       "Yeah, but you could always try out another year, after he graduates." Penelope points out.

       "I suppose that's true." Wisteria stretches herself out more on the couch and groans loudly. "I feel terrible. I call getting in the shower after Christy."

       "I will fight you for a shower." Penelope says.

       "Bring it on. Is it possible that you have equal skills in hand to hand combat as you do in Quidditch? Because if so then I have nothing to worry about."

       Wisteria sees Shannon roll her eyes and can feel Penelope's cold hard glare on the back of her head as she laughs to show that she was just joking. Behind her, Penelope smiles and considers her goal accomplished, Wisteria is happy and Michael is momentarily forgotten about. 


	14. Summer

      Soon the five of them were in Shannon's room. Her room was in the attic and the whole thing was covered in pictures of this and that, quotes from books and movies, and incredibly black and white. The posters and quotes added some color, but everything else from the walls, to the bed, to the furniture was black and white.

       "That couch there pulls out into a bed," Shannon was telling them, "so two people can sleep there and two of us can sleep on my bed-"

       "I call sleeping under the couch!" Jane exclaims as she runs over to the couch, pulls out the bed, and hops into the little space left under the couch, where the bed is usually stowed away.

       The girls all laugh at their goofy friend. "Okay." Shannon continues. "Who wants the actual bed part of the couch?"

       "I love pull out beds." Penelope says as she plops her things next to the couch.

       "I'll take the bed-couch as well." Wisteria says, putting her things down on the other side of the couch.

       "Then that leaves the actual bed for Christy and I!" Shannon says, finishing up the sleeping arrangements.

       "Wonderful!" Penelope says without much actual excitement. "So now what? At Wisty's house we did ordinary muggle things, at Jane's house we did absolutely nothing at all, and at Christy's house we played Quidditch. What are we doing while in the Prince household?"

       "Oh... Um..." Shannon mumbles, her face clearly telling everyone in the room that she hadn't put any thought into the matter at all. "Well... I haven't really considered it too much... I have lots and lots of books! Some of them are really good. There's not really much around this area for us to do outside of the house, but there's lots of woods and things. We could go on hikes, bring books to read when we take breaks."

       "I think that for a plan made up on the spot, it sounds pretty good. It'll be like when we would study by the Black Lake at Hogwarts, but with less headache and homework and more beauty and reading." Wisteria says.

       The next day, the girls woke up in time to eat breakfast with Shannon's parents before they went off to work and were out of the house with bags full of books and food for lunch before her little brother dragged himself out of bed. They entered the forest through a small path in the backyard that was worn by continued use. They talked and joked and laughed as they made their trek through the forest. The farther they got in, the less clear the path was until eventually it disappears and they are walking on the green and red ferns that grow on the forest floor. The sun is shining bright through the trees and illuminates a cluster of big rocks.

       "Well." Penelope says. "That looks inviting."

       "Yes it does!" Wisteria agrees, already scaling the biggest rock. Her hand slips and she nearly drops the bag of books she was carrying. Shannon makes a strangled noise and rushes forward to make sure the books (and her friend) didn't fall. Wisteria laughs. "I'm fine, I'm just clumsy."

       "This is why I always worry when you're in that tree! You can barely walk on your own two feet!" Shannon says.

       "Sometimes, but I'm smooth when it counts. Like in climbing trees, or rocks, or anything. I just almost fell because of these books. They're weighing me down."

       "Well you better not drop them!"

       "Don't worry. I'll be fine. Now get your butts up here!"

       Jane is the next one to attempt the climb as Wisteria sits on the top of the rock above her, laughing as she struggles to find handholds. Penelope and Christine are close behind, Penelope passing Jane no problem and Christine stopping to help her. Shannon walked around to look for an easier way up and found one on the other side of the rock. Soon the five friends are all sitting on the rock and have their chosen books in hand, reading them using the sun filtering through the leaves of the huge oaks surrounding them.

       A few hours later, Shannon and Wisteria are a little over halfway through their book, Penelope and Jane are a little under halfway with theirs, and Christine is barely a fourth of the way through hers. They take a break for lunch and as they eat they take turns describing what they'd read so far.

       After they're finished eating they clean up what's left of the food and go back to reading on the rock, their positioning changing slightly with the setting sun. Finally, the time comes when the sun goes down and their is not longer enough light for them to read. The girls climb off the rocks and begin their journey through the now dark woods. 

       "I can't wait to get back to the house and continue reading!" Wisteria says excitedly. "I am so close to finishing! She's about to find the final clue and discover the truth behind what happened!"

       "I'm almost done too." Shannon tells them. "I may join you in continuing to read back at the house. The main character is on the verge of death!"

       "I think I reached a pretty good stopping point." Penelope says. "I'll just finish it tomorrow."

       "I'm not close to finishing at all." Christine admits.

       "Christy, you read about as slow as a snail crawls. At this rate it'll take you three days just to finish one book!" Jane says. 

       "Yeah," Christine agrees. "And by that point Wisty and Shay will be done with their third book."

       "I can't help it!" Wisteria exclaims.

       "It's not like it's our faults we read fast." Shannon says.

       The girls spend the rest of the week like that. They wake up, eat breakfast, travel to the rocks, read, eat lunch, read, hike back, eat dinner, sleep. It's comforting to all of them to get into such a structured and planned out rhythm. After each day, right before they fall asleep, Wisteria goes to the dining room to write a letter to Michael. He isn't responding anymore, but she continues to write anyway. She gushes about the books she's reading, describes the forest and creatures in it, and ends every letter asking what happened and telling her that she misses him. All that she can do is write, and hope that he reads them.


	15. Year 2 - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, originally this chapter was going to be the last part of their summer and take place at Penelope's house, but honestly I am out of inspiration to write it and already have the next chapter written, so I'm just going to skip it and maybe I'll go back in and add it later. You basically would have found out that both of Penelope's parents died a few years back so now she lives with her aunt (the DADA teacher) and sister (a sixth year ravenclaw). Sorry for my laziness, now back to the story.

       For the second time in her life, Wisteria Evans is in awe of beautiful scarlet train sitting in front of her. With a smile already coming to her face, Wisteria is knocked over by a sudden force slamming into her side. Before she can look up she hears a familiar voice say,

       " _ Jane _ ." Mrs. Tuft stands above her daughter with a disaproving and slightly amused look on her face. "Hello Wisty, how was the last few days of your summer?"

       "Peaceful." Wisteria says as Jane gets off of her and she stands herself back up. "Without the girls around there was an odd sense of quietness."

       "I know what you mean." Mrs. Tuft tells her.

       "I'm happy to be going back though. I missed the school."

       "Well, it wont be long now!" Christine says loudly as she approaches, already having gotten away from her family. 

       "No it wont." James says as he slides up beside Lily. "And I can't wait until I'm seeing your lovely face every day again Lily-pad." Lily glares at him. For a moment he looks disappointed, but he quickly recovers and says, "My lovely Lily, your temper seems to get the better of you often. Perhaps I should stop calling you Lily-Pad and change your pet name to Tiger-Lily."

       Lily's glare intensifies. "I'm not your  _ pet. _ " She snaps at him before turning abruptly in the other direction, whipping him in the face with her hair, and then walking away. 

       Sirius' familiar chuckle is heard before he is seen. He walks over to the group of friends from where his brothers were standing. Mercury glares at their group for a moment before turning to talk to his friends and drag his little brother onto the train with him. Christine gives Sirius a small, sad look, but hides it well and quickly. 

       "James, have you seen Remus or Peter yet?" Sirius asks as he slings an arm around his friends shoulders.

       "Remus is on the train saving us a place and Peter is running a little late, as usual."

       "Wonderful. Well, I think I'm going to join Remus then." Sirius starts to walk away before looking at Wisteria, Jane, and Christine and giving them a small, polite smile. "Ladies." He mumbles.

       As he walks away Penelope comes running up to the girls and links her arm with Wisteria's. "Come on. I just saw Shay get on the train." 

       The four friends pile onto the train, find the fifth member of their party, and before they know it, they're once again on their way to Hogwarts.

       After arriving at Hogwarts, riding the carriages, and sitting through the sorting ceremony, in which Regulus Black was sorted into Slytherin and Daniel Broodmore was sorted into Gryffindor, the students get to enjoy their first feast of the year. Near the end of the feast, Wisteria finds Michael's eyes. They have a silent conversation using their eyes and both stand up at the same time.

       "Where are you going?" Jane asks.

       "I'm stuffed, and exhausted. I'll talk to you girls in the morning." She gets a chorus of goodnight's as she makes her way to the large doors of the Great Hall, but instead of going to the Ravenclaw tower, she walks outside to the tree that she had claimed as her own.

       As she gets closer she can make out Michael's figure leaned up against the tree. He looks elegant and tense at the same time. Casual, but awkward. He seemed off and it broke Wisteria's heart.

       "This is beginning to be a regular thing." She says in attempt at a lighter topic of conversation. Michael doesn't respond. "How was your summer?" She asks half-heartily, hoping for a response with all her heart, but not really expecting one. "I didn't really hear from you very much. You must have been busy." He doesn't respond. "I heard that your brother went to America for most of it. Did you go with him?" He mumbles and Wisteria can't make out any of the words he's saying. "It takes two people to have a conversation you know."

       "Then perhaps you should find a different person." The way he says it, it sounds like he's trying to be rude and snappy, but can't quite bring himself to do it.

       "I don't know why you're acting like this, but I would greatly appreciate it if you would stop." Wisteria tells him, telling herself to be sensible and not overreact. "I hold my friends very close to my heart and I don't like it when I lose one."

       "Who said I wanted to be friends." He says, his voice quiet, but more confident than a moment ago. "I never wanted to be your friend, and I never considered us to be friends."

       Even with the knowledge that it wasn't true Wisteria feels tears rise to her eyes and her throat close up. "I know you don't mean that." Her voice sounds small and weak. He must sense that because his face hardens as he pushes himself off the tree and walks away without another word.

       The next day Wisteria wakes up later than everyone else. They must've sensed her rotten mood last night because they let her sleep in a little. Luckily she still had enough time to make her way to the Great Hall for a quick breakfast and to pick up her schedule.

       Wisteria is walking down the hallway in the direction of the Great Hall when she feels a sudden weight on her shoulders and look up to see two identical red-head boys with their arms slung around her.

        “Hello Lily.” The one on the right says.  Wisteria opens her mouth to correct the boy, but the one on her left speaks before she gets the chance.

        “How nice it is to see you again.”

        “So,” The one on the right continues, “We were thinking of pulling a prank on Slughorn as our opening prank for the year.”

        “The best opportunity for this of course would be at a Slug Club meeting, you’re in Slug Club right?” The one on the left asks, but once again Wisteria is cut off before she can correct the mistaken boys

        “So we were wondering if you could either sneak us in,”

        “Or take one of us as your plus one to the next meeting so that we can go through with this plan of ours.”

        Wisteria slips out from under their arms and turn to face them. “I’m not in the Slug Club.” She says and the boys look taken aback. “Also, I’m not Lily.”

        “What do you mean you’re not Lily?” One of them asks.

        “Blimey Fabs…” Says the other. “She’s not Lily. Look at her eyes.”

        “They’re… hazel? Well that can’t be right. If you’re not Lily, then who are you?”

        “Her sister. Wisteria.”

        “Lily has a little sister?” One of them says, shocked.

        “Twin, actually.”

        Now they really look confused. “Why were we not aware that our favorite red head outside of our own family is a twin as well?”

        “What a sad world we live in where friends don’t even bother to tell each other about their secret twin.”

        “We apologize for the confusion… Wisteria, was it?”

        “Yes.”

        “Well Wisteria, my name is Fabian.”

        “And mine’s Gideon. We’re the Prewett twins.”

 


	16. Year 2 - Part 2

The next morning Michael didn’t show up to breakfast, a fact that made Wisteria frown. After breakfast Wisteria walks with her friends to the Transfigurations classroom. Halfway there a short, older boy with sandy blonde hair and electric blue eyes joins them in the corridors.

“You’re Wisteria Evans, right?” He asks.

She blinks at him. “Yes. Who are you?”

“I’m a Hufflepuff Prefect, the name’s William Alderton, but you can call me Will. I believe you are friends with my little brother Michael.”

This statement makes Wisteria stop in her tracks and her friends send her worried glances. “I thought I was…” She mumbles.

“Has he stopped talking to you?” Will asks.

Wisteria looks at him. “Yes, how did you…”

“Dangit.” Will says. “I thought that maybe since you’re his friend…” He trails off.

“What are you talking about?”

He looks as if he’d already forgotten she was there, his blue eyes clouded at first, but then cleared back to their normal shocking shade of blue. “Every now and then he’ll go through this phase where he convinces himself that he’s useless and a burden on everyone he knows. He cuts himself off from everyone and anyone.”

“He’s done this before?”

“Unfortunately.”

“How long does this usually last?”

Will sighs. “That’s a difficult question to answer. Sometimes it lasts a week, sometimes two, sometimes a few months, it just varies.”

“Months?.. What’s the longest it’s lasted?”

Will sighs deeper. “Two years.”

“Years?” Wisteria asks, horrified. She couldn’t imagine Michael cutting himself off from her for years. “Is there anything I can do to make it pass faster?”

“I’ve never been able to help him out of it. He usually has to figure it out on his own. Then again, he’s never really had a friend before. Maybe you could do something, but I don’t know what. I heard he was skipping ahead a few years and-“

“Wait, what?”

Will looked confused. “Did you not hear? He asked our Head of House if he could take more classes and skip ahead a few years to graduate early. After some convincing he was given permission to do so. I had been under the impression that he was staying in your year, so when I heard the change in plan I knew something must have been up.” Will looks at Wisteria warily as she takes this new information in.  _ He won’t be in any of my classes anymore,  _ was the main thought running through her head. She thought that in class would be the perfect time to talk him out of this, but now… “Anyway,” Will continues, “you girls need to get to class. Maybe I’ll see you all around.” With that, he leaves.

The girls stand in silence for a while before Wisteria starts walking again and the others follow. Then Shannon says,

“That boy was really cute, don’t you think?”

Penelope glares at her and Shannon shrinks away, but Christine replies to her.

“I suppose. Do you know how old he is Wisty?”

“He’s a sixth year who spent the summer in America.”

“Ooh. Shay’s going after an older boy then.” Christine says playfully.

“No one said anything about going after him. I just pointed out he was cute.”

“Not as cute as his brother.” Jane mumbles.

“That’s for sure.” Penelope agrees.

The five girls walk into the classroom and begin to pick out their seats among the clusters of Ravenclaws and Griffindors. Wisteria spots the Prewett twins that she had met the day before sitting at the table next to Lily. She sits herself down next to her twin sister; on the other side of her was a gap between tables, and then the Prewetts. Penelope and Christine sit down in front of the Prewetts and Jane and Shannon sit in from of the Evans.

Wisteria discovered quickly that the Prewett twins were class clowns, but it seemed the teacher was already more than prepared to deal with them. This meant that when one of the twins tried to pass her a note, Professor McGonnagal caught him in the act and swiftly disposed of the unread note.

The twins didn’t look one bit disheartened though. They continued to goof off and try new ways of sending messages to the Evans twins. Finally, Wisteria, who was both annoyed with them as well as curious as to what they wanted to tell her, cast an obscure spell on their table as well as hers while McGonnagals back was turned.

She was sure the Professor knew what she had done, but McGonnagal said nothing, so Wisteria went through with her plan anyway. She took out her quill and wrote on the table in front of her

_This is Wisteria. I’ve cast a spell on our tables. If you write on yours it will appear on mine. This way we can talk to each other without you two idiot getting in trouble._

As she silently waited for them to notice and respond, McGonnagal continued droning on with her lecture, letting Wisteria know that even if she had been caught, McGonnagal had no intention of doing anything about it. _Perhaps._ Wisteria thinks to herself, _she’s simply thankful at least one student is using what they’ve learned, even if it’s not for the best reason._

She looks down and sees words beginning to form on the desk. _This better not be some prank, though I applaud you on creativity if it is._

Wisteria laughs to herself and looks over at their table to one of them writing something on parchment and the other looking over at her. She smiles and replies. _It’s not, I promise._

_Well,_ He writes back, _in that case, this is really cool. Where did you learn a spell like that?_

_I actually paid attention in Charms last year._ She writes.

_Sarcasm noted._ He replies shortly.

_I wanted to pull a prank on a friend of mine so I did a bit of kissing up to Flitwick, asked a few questions and did a bit of research on my own and stumbled across it._

_Well I think it’s magnificent. Could you do this to our desks in every class we have together?_

_You know, you could always pay attention in class for once._

_Wow, you already have me figured out, don’t you. But paying attention is boring. Plus, I’m pretty sure the only classes we have together besides this are Charms and History of Magic. Those are dreadful._

_Then we could sit together instead of apart. If we do that, writing notes won’t be necessary._

_Yeah, but this way it actually looks like I’m paying attention and taking notes and stuff. Besides, I like writing these little temporary notes._

Wisteria rolls her eyes and sighs. _Fine you weirdo. I’ll do this on our desks in those classes. Which one of you am I talking to?_

_Fabian. I think that Gideon is asleep._

Wisteria glances over at their table and sure enough she sees that one of them is fast asleep. She looks between them for a moment in an attempt to find some noticeable difference so that she could tell them apart, but Fabian catches her staring and she turns away.

_Admiring the view were you?_ Fabian writes. Wisteria fights the blush wanting to rise to her cheeks and replies,

_Trying to get used to get used to the sight of your face more like it._

_Am I too beautiful for your brain to comprehend?_

_Something like that…_

_Well I happen to think that you are just as pretty as me._

_Is that supposed to be a complement?_

_What else would it be?_

_A joke._

_I never joke about pretty girls._

Wisteria blushes and, feeling bold, writes, _Are you flirting with me?_

Fabian scrawls a short reply, _Something like that…_ mimicking her earlier words. Wisteria smiles softly to herself and thinks about how Michael never flirted with her outright like that, though she would very much like him to.

Immediately she scolds herself for thinking that. Michael won’t even talk to her anymore and who knows how long it will last. She can’t be expected to wait for him to get over himself and be willing to interact with her again. At the same time though, a small glimmer of hope remained in her chest that Michael’s phase would be a short one and he would soon return to being her friend, if nothing else.

_If it is then I’m flattered and if it’s not then thank you. I don’t typically get complements like that._

It takes a few moments, but finally words begin appearing, _Really? I would think the whole world would jump at the opportunity to point out your red hair._

_That’s just it though. Everyone says I have pretty hair, not that I’m pretty. For all the world cares I’m as ugly as a Flobberworm, because all they see is the hair._

_I suppose that’s true. Gideon and I come from a family of redheads though, so we’re used to it. Our sister Molly is even married to a guy who comes from a long line of redheads._

_Really?_

The two continue to talk until the end of class. Their next classes were in opposite directions, so the two parted ways quickly after the class had ended. Wisteria then quickly caught up with Remus, James, Peter and Sirius before they went off to class.

“Hey Remus.” She says, “I trust you took notes in Transfigurations?”

“I did.”   

“I was a little distracted and didn’t get some of them. You wouldn’t mind letting me borrow them later so I can get the rest, would you?”

“Of course you can. Do you want to meet in Library after dinner?”

“Sure.”

“We’ll come too.” James said, slinging an arm around Sirius. “Siri and I aren’t doing too hot in Potions.”

“We haven’t even been to Potions yet.” Peter points out.

“Yes, well we haven’t taken Divination yet either, but I could have sworn the leaves in my tea this morning were telling me that I needed help in Potions.” Sirius jokes.

Wisteria rolls her eyes at them. “I will see you all later.” She says, smiling, as she walks away. Wisteria jogs to catch up to her friends on their way to Herbology and out of the corner of eye sees Mercury Black.

As usual his clique of Slytherins, consisting of his fellow seventh years Shaun Belby and Audrey Pendleton, surrounds him. Though now there are more in the mix. Some are just younger kids trying to act cool by hanging around him, but others are simply new additions to his inner group. There are three new additions that Wisteria recognizes, seventh year Narcissa Lestrange, her sixth year boyfriend Lucius Malfoy, and first year Regulus Black, Mercury’s younger brother.

The group of Slytherins glare daggers at her as she passes. A few of them call her ‘mudblood’, others taunt her, but by far the scariest thing out of all of it was Mercury. He stood in the back of all of them, leaned up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, completely silent. He doesn’t say a word as she passes, just glares. Beside him the youngest Black brother stands less confident and less menacing, looking more like an imposter trying to blend in than anything else.

Wisteria ignored all of them, but quickened her pace as she rushed to reach her friends. When she catches up to them she lets out a breath she wasn’t aware she’d been holding, glad to have gotten past them without an incident.

 


	17. Year 2 - Part 3

I’m worried about Remus.” Wisteria tells her roommates as they sit in the common room doing homework.

“Well you should be worrying about yourself. Are you feeling alright?” Penelope asks, putting her hand to Wisteria’s fever red forehead.

“No, but I’m sure it’ll pass. I’ll go to Madame Pomfrey tomorrow if I still feel bad by then.” Penelope looks unhappy, but lets it go.

“Why is it that you’re worried about Lupin?” Jane asks.

“Because that’s what she says when she has a crush on someone. First she was ‘worried’ about Michael and now it’s Remus.” Penelope explains.

“Ah, moved on from Michael have you?” Christine asks.

“No! I mean, yes, I have moved on from Michael, but no, that is not how I say I have a crush on someone!”

“Oh really? Then who do you have a crush on right now?” Wisty says nothing, just glares at Penelope. “Thought so.”

“I still worry about Michael you know. I may have moved on from him, but I still worry.”

“Of course you do!” Shannon says. “Poor kid has issues.”

Wisteria sighs. “You’re not helping.”

“Weren’t you going to get him a birthday present?” Jane asks.

“I already have, William delivered it a couple days ago. I got him a few books for advanced Potion making and Arithmancy. I also wrote him a note, but I don’t know if he’ll actually read it…”

A silence fell over the girls until Jane asks, “Why are you worrying about Remus again?”

“Because he’s always sick!”

“That’s true. He must be miserable being sick that much.”

“When I was little my immune system was weak and I got sick all the time just like him. Eventually it got stronger though. I can’t believe his hasn’t.” Wisteria says.

“I know. Honestly, with an immune system as weak as his I’m shocked he hasn’t died yet.” Penelope says.

The next day Wisteria didn’t get any better, so she upheld her promise to Penelope and went to see Madame Pomfrey. The medical wizard looked her over and came to the conclusion that Wisteria had been subjected to a mild poison. She said it wasn’t nearly enough to kill or permanently damage her, but enough to keep her out of school for a week.

When asked who might have had a reason to poison her Wisteria thinks about Mercury. She had studied with the boys a few days ago and Sirius had of course been there. Mercury wouldn’t have gotten so mad as to poison her though, would he? She decided not to say anything about him to Madame Pomfrey.

The day of Halloween was the last day that Wisteria was stuck in the infirmary. She felt fine now, but Madame Pomfrey wasn’t one to take chances. Luckily for her, Wisteria’s friends weren’t about to let her miss out on her favorite holiday of the year. Penelope spend most of her time talking to Madame Pomfrey about medical spells and potions, Christine spend most of her time talking with Shannon and Wisteria about books and boys and Jane spent the whole time trying to make a radio work despite everyone informing her that it couldn’t be done inside of Hogwarts.

Remus was one of the first to show up outside of Wisteria’s immediate group of friends, he brought her chocolates.

“Chocolate works wonders when it comes to making people feel better.” He tells her as the girls all giggle at Wisteria’s slight blush.

The Prewett Twins are the next to come in. They give her a free face painting, making her face look like the devil and laughing uncontrollably after telling her that she “has found her true form”.

Finally the rest of Remus’ group strut through the door bringing enough candy to last all of them a month at least. They then sat with her and told her of their adventures sneaking into Hogsmeade to get he the candy from Honeydukes.

When Wisteria woke up the next morning she was free to go and happy to no longer be missing classes.


	18. Year 2 - Part 4

A few long days later November came around, dragging in the cold air with it. Soon after that, Quidditch tryouts were announced and you could feel the anxiety in the air. Shannon and Wisteria had been training together and Wisteria didn’t feel too bad about her performance, but she knew that she was much better at the Keeper position than Seeker.

Finally the day came and all the Ravenclaws who hoped to be put on the team came to the Pitch, brooms in hand.

Group by group the Ravenclaw captain, Charles Marchbanks calls upon those trying out to test them and one by one, they are sent away. In the end the Chasers and Beaters remain the same from the last year and he finally got to the one position that needed to be replaced.

“Seekers!” Charles yells, “You’ll go one at a time and be timed by me. The fastest to find and catch the Snitch gets the spot on the team; it’s as simple as that.

In the end, Wisteria found the Snitch in twice the amount of time it took Shannon, placing Wisteria fourth overall and Shannon first. After tryouts everyone who didn’t get a spot was urged to try again next year and then they were kicked out as he held a team meeting.

Wisteria waited for Shannon outside the locker room. As she waits for her friend, the Gryffindor team, or those who wished to be on it, walks into view to begin their tryouts. Among them were James, Sirius, and the Prewett twins.

“Well if it isn’t my favorite ginger outside of my own family.” One of the twins say as the two approach.

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “What position are you two going for?”

“Beaters. And you? Did you make the team?”

Wisteria shakes her head. “My friend Shay did though.”

“Good for her, give her our congratulations. Better luck next time for you, yeah?”

“Yeah. What was the homework for transfigurations again? I can’t remember.”

“If you need some help with it we’d be happy to meet up with you sometime tonight.”

“Ummm…”

“You usually study with Remus and them right? They could tag along if you already plan to study with them.”

Wisteria blushes slightly at the thought that people realize she’s with Remus a lot. “Remus and I are the only ones who get anything done, the other three just goof off. I was just hesitant because I was going through my calendar mentally. I was going to try to talk to a friend later tonight. I suppose I could put that off a little though…”

In the back of her head Wisteria thinks of Michael and she longs to chase after him, but her sensible side tells her that its hopeless and she needs to move on. At this thought, Remus pops into her mind. She shakes her head to clear her thoughts and then looks at the twins in front of her. She finally figured out a way to tell them apart. They part their hair differently. Fabian looked at her, concern written on his face until she smiles at him. “Let’s meet in the kitchen tonight after dinner. We can work there so that might also get a chance to talk to my friend.”

“Sure thing. Who’s this friend of yours that could be in the kitchen?”

“Umm… I’m a good friend with one of the house-elves down there. It’s been a while since I’ve been to see her.”

“Prewetts! Let’s go!” Sirius yells as he waves the Prewetts over to where the Gryffindor’s were gathering.

“Best of luck to you both. See you tonight.” Wisteria says as the two run off to join their team.

A couple of minutes later Shannon appeared and she and Wisteria made their way back to Ravenclaw tower to celebrate her friends success.

Later that night, after dinner, Wisteria runs up to her room to grab her books and her wand and then walks through the halls to the kitchens. Halfway there she runs into some of the Slytherins on their way to their tryouts. Unfortunately the few that she ran into weren’t the kindest of the bunch.

The sight of Mercury along with Lucius and Narcissa make Wisteria stop in her tracks. The three approach her as Mercury begins to speak.

“I thought I told you to stay away from my little brother. I thought you understood why you needed to stay away from my little brother. And yet, you still talk to him, and despite my numerous conversations with him, he still talks to you, he even visited you in the infirmary. Why?”

“I don’t know.” Wisteria squeaks out as she gets more and more unnerved by Lucius’ gaze on her.

“I can certainly see the appeal in being around a girl like her.” Lucius says as he eyes roam up and down Wisteria’s body.

“You understand why my brother wishes to spend his time with a Mudblood?”

“Ignoring the Mudblood part, she is quite the choice.”

“There is no ‘ignoring the Mudblood part’. It’s what she is. You think she’s a good choice for my brother as a spouse?”

Lucius’ nose crinkles with disgust. “Not as a spouse. More like… as a plaything. She would make a very nice plaything.”

Mercury glares at Lucius before whipping out his wand, grabbing Wisteria’s arm, muttering a spell, and slicing her arm open, creating a huge gash. Wisteria feels the food she just ate rising back up in her throat as she looks at the blood seeping out of the wound.

“Keep away from my brother or worse is to come.” Mercury warns, and with that he and his little posse walk away.

Wisteria, feeling nauseous and like she’s going to pass out, stumbles to the infirmary where Madame Pomfrey fixes up her arm.

“What happened to cause this?” Madame Pomfrey asks.

“I-uhh… I fell and… hit a wall. My skin is sensitive so it just sliced right open.”

Madame Pomfrey gives her a look that lets her know her story wasn’t believable, but she wasn’t going to question it further. “I recommend eating some chocolate.” She says as she begins putting away her supplies.

“Wonderful, I was just on my way to the kitchen anyway, I’ll grab some there.”

“Wait, you can’t leave yet!”

“I’ve got homework to do, so I have to go.” Wisteria says. She’s already halfway out the door when she pauses to turn around. “Thank you!” She calls back into the infirmary before rushing to the kitchens.

Halfway to the kitchens Wisteria runs into Remus who isn’t looking very good. His skin is a ghostly pale and his tired, as if he hadn’t gotten sleep in days.

“Remus! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just a little sick.”

“That seems to happen a lot.”

“It does. Weak immune systems unfortunately run in my family. Where are you off to?”

“The kitchens. I’m studying tonight with the Prewetts. You should come too, I’ve heard that chocolate works wonders when it comes to helping people feel better.”

Remus laughs weakly. “I just left there actually.” He says, taking some chocolate out of his pockets.

“One step ahead of me, even when you’re sick.” Wisteria comments as she shakes her head. “Well, I hope you feel better soon.”

“And I wish you luck with your studies.”

A few moments later Wisteria walks into the kitchen and is greeted by a familiar House-Elf.

“Hi Deedee. How have you been?”

“Deedee has been well Miss. What can Deedee do for Mistress Evans.”

“Deedee, I’ve told you before, just call me Wisty,”

“Of course! Sorry Mis- umm, Wisty.”

“That’s better. Some cookies and milk would be wonderful.”

“Right away Wisty.”

“Oh, and would you mind telling me if Michael Alderton has been here recently?”

“He has Wisty. Master Michael comes here everyday. Says he prefers it here than up there in the Hall with everyone else.”

“Thanks Deedee.”

“Of course Wisty.”

“Wisty!” Fabian yells, finally having noticed her. “What took you so long?”

“Oh, I ran into some trouble and then I ran into Remus. Sorry it took so long. How did tryouts go?”

“Pretty good! Fabs and I didn’t make the team, but Potter and Black did.”

“Better luck next year.”

“Yeah, you too. Now lets hurry up and get on with the studying before I lose the will power.”


	19. Year 2 - Part 5

When December rolls around Wisteria gets invited to a birthday party in the Room of Requirements for the Prewett Twins. The party took place nearly a week after their birthday since they were called away from school for a while to be with their sister and her new born.

“Look at our new nephew!” Gideon was gushing to everyone who walked into the room. “His name is Charlie! Look at how handsome he is! He’s gonna look just like me!”

“No way Gid! He’s gonna look more like me. I’m the handsome one after all.” Fabian says, sending a wink in Wisteria’s direction after noticing her looking at him. She blushes and turns back to her conversation with Remus.

Remus smiles at her. “You seem a little distracted. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little tired.” Her hand automatically moves to the new scar on her arm. The wound healed, but Madame Pomfrey said the scar would most likely remain, not that Wisteria minded; it wasn’t her first scar after all.

“How’s your arm doing?” He asks.

“Oh.” She drops her hand. “It’s all healed up now. Where are the rest of you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, your usual group. James, Peter, and Sirius.”

“Oh, they’re just running a little late. I told them they couldn’t come unless they finished their homework.”

“And they listened?”

Remus laughs. “Probably not. If I know them they’re just hanging back for a while to make it look like they did as told.”

Wisteria laughs with him as the Prewett twins come to stand next to them. “Hello Evans.” Gideon says as he rests his arm on her shoulder.

“Wisteria.” She says. “I’m Wisteria.”

“I know that.” Gideon tells her.

“Yeah right. Lily and I both know you call us ‘Evans’ until you figure out which one of us it is. We’re not idiots you know.”

“Well obviously you’re not an idiot. You’re in Ravenclaw after all.” Fabian tells her.

“Lily is smarter than me in most subjects actually. Like transfigurations and charms for instance.”

“I thought you were doing pretty good in those classes.” Gideon states.

“I’m great at understanding how to do everything, but actually carrying out the spells is a lot harder for me, so my homework looks great, but in class I look completely incompetent.”

“You don’t look that bad to me in class.” Fabian says.

“That’s because you’re too busy looking at her pretty face to notice that she can’t even disarm someone properly yet.” Gideon comments, laughing, as his twins face burns red.

Wisteria laughs, but also blushes. “It’s true, I can’t properly disarm someone.”

“You know you can always come to us for help.” Fabian says as the color starts to recede from his face. “Despite our goofy personalities, we’re actually pretty good at performing magic.”

“Oh please. Since when do you boys pay attention in class long enough to even know what spells we’re working on?” Lily asks as she approaches. “Hey Wisty, it’s been a while. Severus misses you, you really should talk to him more you know.”

“I know, I just… I don’t like the people he hangs around.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asks. “The Slytherins? You know, not all of them are bad.”

“Of course I know that, but every time I see him I feel like he’s near Regulus.”

“What’s wrong with Regulus?”

“Nothing, it’s his brother that I’m afraid of. You know what Mercury did the last time he found out I talked to Sirius…” Wisteria falls silent as she touches the scar on her arm again.

“What did my brother do?” Sirius asks as he walks into the room with James and Peter.

Wisteria is saved from having to answer by Fabian and Gideon running over to the newcomers. “Finally! What took you blokes so long to get here?”

“We had to wait for Sirius here to finish snogging his new girlfriend.” Peter says.

“Hey, she isn’t my girlfriend yet.” Sirius says.

Wisteria sighs and looks away only to find her eyes meeting Remus’. He smiles at her and she looks away, blushing slightly.

“Honestly Sirius!” Lily says disapprovingly. “You’re only what, twelve?”

“Thirteen.” He corrects.

“Still! You can’t just go around dating and kissing whoever you want.”

“Actually I’m pretty sure I can as long as it’s consensual.”

“And what happens when you actually fall for someone, but they don’t want to date you because they’re afraid you wont stay loyal?”

Sirius laughs. “You worry too much about the future Lily. I prefer to live in the now and think about the consequences later.”

“That’ll get you in trouble one day.”

“Oh believe me my Lily-Pad, it already has. That’s why he keeps getting so many detentions.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t get them too James.”

“I never said anything about my bad decisions, I was talking about yours.”

“Speaking of my bad decisions, I do believe that one of them is about to come to life.”

“Which one?” The Prewetts ask in unison.

“This one.” Sirius says right as a loud bang goes off and without any warning at all, everyone in the room is stuck under the dancing-feet spell. They all dance wildly around the room and many people are roaring with laughter, including the Prewett twins. Fabian dances his way closer to Wisteria who laughs at how ridiculous he looks.

“Care to dance?” He asks.

“We’re already dancing.” She points out.

“Care to dance with me?”

“I suppose.”

Fabian grabs her hand and the two continue dancing together until about five minutes later when the spell wears off. The Prewett twins continue their contagious laughter as they high five Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus and promise to get them back sometime soon.

The day for their revenge came on the day everyone was leaving to go home for the winter holiday. That morning the Prewett twins managed to sneak a hair-raising potion in each of the four boys drinks, meaning that everywhere they went the four were stared at four their crazy hair. Though James and Sirius pretended to be traumatized for it, everyone, even the boys, enjoyed the prank.


	20. Year 2 - Part 6

Ravenclaw’s first Quidditch match of the year was, as usual, against Hufflepuff. Wisteria sat in the stands with her friends and they all cheered loudly as Shannon was announced. The Hufflepuffs entered the pitch second and Wisteria momentarily stopped paying attention to listen to a comment Christine was making about a cute player she had been talking to before the game.

Halfway through the comment however, she is interrupted by the announcer introducing the Hufflepuff team members. “There are three new players on the Hufflepuff team this year. Fifth year Abraham Grimblehawk taking the place of the Keeper, Sixth year William Alderton taking the place of a Beater, and the only one every girl in the school cares about, Second year Michael Alderton taking the field as the new, and extremely attractive, Seeker!” The entire stadium seems to erupt with excitement, but Wisteria hears none of it as she numbly watches her old friend fly onto the Pitch.

Her friends looked at her with concerned written on their faces, but she waved them off and cheered for Shannon again. A few moments later the game began.

Ravenclaw was destroying Hufflepuff throughout the entire game, but in the end it was Michael who caught the Snitch, not Shannon. The game ended with the score being 180-170, a Ravenclaw victory. The stadium roared with lasting excitement from the match as Wisteria and her friends fought their way down to the pitch to congratulate Shannon on the victory. Along the way they ran into Lily and her friends, who were fighting their way down to congratulate the players as well.

“That game was amazing!” Lily yelled above the noise of the crowd.

“I know! That was the best game yet!” Christy agreed.

“Who knew that Michael could play like that?” Marlene questioned. “I mean, on top of a beautiful face and being the smartest kid at the school he’s also good at sports? I’ve never met a more perfect human being.”

“Speaking of which, I heard you guys aren’t talking any more. What happened?” Alice asked Wisteria.

“He’s being an idiot.” Penelope says. “I mean really, look at Wisty. Only an idiot would walk away from that.”

“Don’t listen to Pen. He’s just got some problems in his own life he needs to work through and wanted some space to do that.” Wisteria explains

Penelope laughs. “Yeah right.”

Finally the group had finally gotten to the field and found Shannon who came running up to them, face flushed.

“We won!” She yelled. “I mean, I didn’t catch the Snitch, but we still won!”

“We know!” Jane says, laughing.

“You looked good up there, better luck with the Snitch next time.” Lily said.

“Thanks!”

“Hey, Shannon was it?” William Alderton asks as he approaches. Shannon looks up and nods her head. “Don’t feel too bad about not getting the Snitch this time, my brother is just naturally amazing at everything. You’ll get it next time, I’m sure of it.”

“Thank you.” She says, flustered. As soon as he walks away her friends start squealing at bugging her about her obvious crush on him.

As the other girls fawned over the sixth year Beater, Wisteria slipped away until she found Michael making his way towards the school.

“Michael!” She yelled as she ran up to him. He didn’t turn around, but he did stop walking so she could catch up. She ran around the front of him, but he refused to meet her eye. “You played great out there. Good job catching that Snitch.” He doesn’t respond beyond a little bit of mumbling. “Anyway, I hope you liked your birthday present. I’ll see you around, maybe we could meet up in the Kitchen sometime?”

Wisteria walks away from him to get back to her friends and sighs. He hasn’t gotten any better yet, but she held onto her hopes that he would come around soon. As she pushed him out of her mind, the Prewett twins ran out of the crowd and up to her.

“Hey Wisteria!” Fabian yelled to her.

“Boys!” She waves to them as they come to stand on either side of her.

“If I’m not mistaken you and Lily have a birthday coming up.” Gideon says.

“You are not mistaken.”

“Perfect. In that case we’ll be giving you your present soon.”

“How soon?”

“Right now if you’d like.”

Wisteria considers for a moment whether she wants whatever it is now, or on her actual birthday. “Okay. You wouldn’t happen to have it on you, would you?”

“No, but we can move up to the Gryffindor common room for a few minutes so I can run to our room and grab it.” Fabian says.

“Am I allowed in your common room?”

“I don’t see why not. Come on, I’ll lead the way.”

Wisteria and Fabian start walking, but both quickly stop when they realize Gideon isn’t following.

“I’m going to stay out here a while longer.” He tells them.

“Okay. We’ll catch up later.” Fabian says as he and Wisteria continue on their way.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been with only one of you. It’s a little strange.” Wisteria tells him.

“I suppose so. It’s not a bad thing is it?”

“What?”

“Being alone with me.”

“Oh, no, not at all. I was simply stating the fact that I never had been.”

“I saw you trying to talk to that Michael kid early. It didn’t look like he was responding much.”

“Yeah. We were friends last year and we wrote to each other throughout most of the summer, but then one day he just… stopped responding. And now he wont talk to me at all.”

“Do you have a crush on him?”

“I did. We haven’t talked in so long now though… I really just want my friend back.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s not as if you had anything to do with it. Anyway, how’s school going for you two?”

“It’s going fine. We’re still getting detentions at least once a week, but we aren’t failing any classes yet, so there’s that.”

“You know you could always just stop pranking people and speaking out in class. Then you wouldn’t get as many detentions.”

“We can’t just stop having fun. I mean, what is it that you do for fun? There’s no way you just sit there and study all the time.”

“I sneak out a lot actually.”

“What? But you haven’t ever had a detention.”

“Why would I get a detention if I’m never caught?”

Fabian laughs. “I never would’ve thought of you as rebellious.”

“I wouldn’t really consider it rebellious.”

“Well I don’t think that I believe it. I might need some proof of that rebellious streak.”

“I told you, I wouldn’t say that it’s rebellious at all.”

“I still don’t believe you. You should meet up with Gideon and I after curfew one day.”

“What?”

“Yeah. That would be proof enough.”

“And what do think we would do? I’m not helping you with one of your pranks.”

“Who says we need help with any pranks?”

“I didn’t mean that, I just… Why would you want me to sneak out with you anyway?”

“So that we can learn all of your secrets obviously. You say you’ve never been caught before.”

“I don’t know if I wanna sneak out with you two.”

The two reach Griffindors common room and Fabian says the password to open the portrait. “Well if you decide you do want to meet Gideon and I by the Black Lake at 11 pm next Friday. Now I’m going to grab your present, you can just hang out here in the meantime.”

Fabian walks up a flight of stairs and Wisteria takes in the Griffindor common room. It isn’t insanely different from the Ravenclaw one. Everything is red and gold rather than the blue she’d grown used to and it’s more cramped than the Ravenclaw one. She plops herself down on one of the comfortable chairs near the fireplace and glances around the room again. A few minutes later Fahian comes back down the stairs with a long box in his arms.

“Here, you don’t have to open it right now if you don’t want to.”

“Thank you guys so much! I’ll wait to open it on my birthday.”

“Of course we were gonna get you a present. What kind of rubbish friends would we be if we didn’t? Anyway, I’ll walk you back to Ravenclaw tower if you want.”

“That would be great, thanks.”

Friday night rolled around and Wisteria spent her birthday night in her dorm with her friends. She got a new quill and more parchment from Shannon, a pocket watch from Jane that was charmed to buzz when she was late for something, Christine got her a new shirt with the Ravenclaw emblem on it, and Penelope gave her some wizard money to use as she saw fit. She finally opens Fabian and Gideon’s present to her to find a broom. As far as she knows its not anywhere close to the newest model, but the present means a lot to her nonetheless. Around 8:00 at night Deedee stops by and drops off a pie.

“Master Alderton told me to make sure you got this.” She told Wisteria who smiles to herself at the thought of his slow return to normal.

Finally 11:00 rolls around and the girls fall asleep, allowing Wisteria to sneak out unnoticed. Along the way there she runs into Sirius, James, and Peter who are practically carrying Remus through the halls.

“Oh my gosh! Is he okay?”

James looks a little panicked and Peter almost falls over, but as usual Sirius keeps a cool head, showing no emotion other than confidence.

“We think he might have eaten something he was allergic to at dinner today. Don’t you worry about a thing love, we’re taking him to the infirmary right now. And if we weren’t in a rush I might ask you why you’re out this late, but alas, we must be on our way.”

“O-okay. Tell Remus I hope he feels better soon.”

“Of course. Goodnight.”

With that the three of them whisked Remus away and after allowing herself a brief moment of worry, she hurries off to the Black Lake. She can feel the new pocket watch vibrating against her, letting her know that she’s running late.

As she approaches the lake Wisteria looks up and smiles at the full moon. The twins run up to her and hug her tight.

“I know we said it earlier today, but happy birthday Wisteria!” Fabian says.

“Thanks guys, but one of the best ways to avoid getting caught is not talking.”

“A little adventure never hurt anyone. Besides, how boring would it be if we didn’t talk.” Gideon asks her.

“Fine, but just so you guys know, if you get caught, I’m not letting myself get dragged into trouble with you.”

“Little miss goody two shoes doesn’t want to ruin her reputation?” Fabian asks.

Wisteria glares at him. “Are you making fun of me?”

“N-no! Of course not!” He says, panicking. “I would never make fun you.”

Gideon and Wisteria laugh at him and the three friends spend the next couple of hours sneaking around the school, joking, laughing, and trying their best to not get caught.


	21. Summer

Before everyone knew it the end of the year had come around and they were on the train to Kings Cross station again. Wisteria rode on the train with her friends, each of them discussing summer plans.  
“My brother wants to go to a game for the Quidditch World Cup for his birthday, but other than that I’m free all summer if any of you get bored.” Christine tells them.  
“Unfortunately I’m spending most of my time out of the country. My sister wants me to go with her to Japan. She’s considering living there and wants my opinion on the place.” Penelope says.  
“My brother also wants to go to a Quidditch World Cup game.” Shannon tells them. “I’ll probably go with him to that. Maybe I’ll see you there Christy! Other than that my older sister is getting married, so I have to go to that wedding and I’ll probably spend most of my summer with her before she leaves for Australia with her fiancé or husband or whatever.”  
“Aww! A wedding sounds like fun!” Christine exclaims. “Can I come!”  
Shannon laughs. “Sure Christy. You can be my date.”  
“Are your sure about that Shay?” Jane asks in a teasing voice. “I would’ve thought that you wanted to ask that Alderton boy to be your date.”  
Shannon’s face turns bright red. “Shut up Jane. What are your plans anyway?”  
“My parents decided that we’re moving, so that will take up a good bit of my time because we have so much stuff. Apparently we’re staying with family friends for a while before we move into the new place.”  
“What family friends?” Christy asks.  
“The Lovegood’s.”  
“Oh, Xenophilius is only a few years older than us and he’s so nice!” Wisteria says.  
“What do you mean ‘only a few years’? He’s a seventh year. That’s more than ‘a few’.” Penelope tells her.  
“Whatever, the point is that he’s nice. I’m sure you two will get along fine. Anyway, I’ll probably visit you from time to time Christy because I have no plans at all.” Wisteria says.  
“Did I hear you say you have no summer plans Wisteria?” Fabian asks as he sticks his head into their compartment.  
“Why yes you did Fabian. May I ask why you were listening into our conversation from outside our compartment?” Wisteria asks.  
“No you may not.” He says as he pulls the rest of his body into the room and plops himself down next to Wisteria. “You know Wisteria, you’re always welcome to come hang with Gideon and I for a while.”   
“Speaking of which, where is your other half?” Penelope asks him.  
“Oh he’s around.” Fabian says vaguely. “You really should come around though. Molly would love to meet you sometime and I’m sure you two would get around great.”  
“Is that so?” Wisteria asks. “Well if that’s the case then I’ll have to make my way to your house sometime. Perhaps she can replace you and Gideon as my favorite red heads out side of myself and Lily.”  
Fabian feigns injury. “What a wretched thing to say! No one could ever replace us, certainly not our own sister!”  
“Who knows. The future is never certain.”  
“Speaking of the future, have you decided what classes you’re taking next year?” Fabian asks.  
“I went with Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures.” Wisteria tells him.  
“We decided as a group to take Care of Magical creatures and then each chose our own second class.” Penelope explains. “I’m taking Divination along with Christy, Jane is taking Arithmancy and Shay is taking Muggle Studies.”  
“That’s a shame.” Fabian says. “I was hoping to have some more classes with you next year.”  
Wisteria feels the eyes of all the girls flick to her and a blush rises to her face.  
“Fabian! Come on mate let’s go!” Gideon says as he suddenly pops his head into the compartment. Fabian looks slightly annoyed, but still smiles genuinely.  
“I’ll see you later Wisteria.”  
“Bye.” Wisteria says back and then does her best to ignore the girls as they bug her about his obvious crush on her for the rest of the trip.

The next day Wisteria and Lily are back at home and halfway unpacked when they decide to take a break from unpacking.  
“Mom, Wisty and I are gonna go to the park with Sev!” Lily yells as she drags her sister out the front door. The twins run down the street to the park and find Severus already there, sitting under a tree.  
“Lily! Wisty! How are you?”  
“We’re great, how have you been?” Wisty answers.  
“I’ve been fine. I’ve hardly seen you at all though Wisty. Was your second year enjoyable?”  
“Of course she enjoyed it. She had Fabian Prewett practically drooling over her the whole year.” Lily jokes.  
“It was.” Wisteria says to Severus, ignoring Lily. “I’m really sorry about not talking to you much by the way. I’ll try to see more of you next year.”  
“Lily did bring up a good point though. I saw you hanging around those Prewett boys a lot. I’m not sure that they’re the best influences on you. Those two get into lots of trouble.”  
“Thank you for your concern, but they aren’t that bad. They just have a large sense of humor is all. Besides, I don’t necessarily approve of your friends in Slytherin.”  
“Who? Regulus? What’s wrong with him?”  
“Not Regulus, he’s not horrible, but his brother is.”  
“Mercury is graduated anyway and he is in no way worse than Sirius.”  
“At least Sirius has a heart! Mercury is just cruel.”  
“Sirius bullies me!”  
“And Mercury bullies me!”  
“Hey!” Lily interjects. “Let’s stop talking about that okay? It’s summer, we’re supposed to have fun and make plans with friends.”  
“My plan was to just hang out with you two.” Severus says, calming down a bit.  
“I don’t have any set in stone plans” Lily says, “But I’ll probably see Mary, Marlene, Alice, and Emmaline from time to time. What about you Wisty? Are you gonna hang with Christy, Pen, Jane, and Shay?”  
“I was planning on spending most of my summer here and then the last month or so with the Prewetts. They want me to meet their sister Molly and her family.” Wisty tells them and takes notice of how Severus doesn’t seem too upset at the idea of it just being him and Lily for a while.  
“Well while we are all here, what do you guys want to do?” Lily asks.  
“We should go swimming! I got so busy with finals at the end of the year that I haven’t gone swimming since September!” Wisteria says.  
“I think I’ll just watch.” Severus tells them.  
Wisteria laughs. “Still not much of a swimmer huh Sev?”  
“It’s fine. You can sit and talk to us like usual.”  
Severus smiles at the girls and follows the to the pool.

A few hours later the friends were walking back home from the pool and Lily was walking a few meters in front of Wisteria and Severus.  
“Hey Sev.” Wisteria says. “I’m sorry about what I said earlier about your friends. I shouldn’t make assumptions; I should trust your judgment. But about Mercury…”  
“I don’t really consider him my friend Wisty, I’m friends with Regulus who was always around Mercury so I was around him a lot too, that’s all. Besides, Mercury is gone this year, whatever he did that upset you, he wont be doing it again.”  
Wisty smiles at him. “You’re right. Thank you Sev.”  
“Of course Wisty. What’re friends for right?”

At the beginning of August Wisteria’s parents drive her to the home of Fabian and Gideon’s sister, a place they referred to as “The Burrow”. When she got there she found it to be a small place that almost resembles a shack with a couple extra rooms built onto it. Wisteria kissed her mom and dad goodbye and ran up to the house. She didn’t even get a chance to knock on the door before Fabian and Gideon came barreling out of the house and tackled her into a huge hug.  
“Hi boys.” Wisteria says, laughing.  
“Wisty! How are you! We’ve missed you! Molly is cooking in the kitchen right now, let’s go say hello to her!” Gideon says, dragging Wisteria back up to a standing position.  
Fabian wraps an arm around her shoulders to lead her into the kitchen and Wisteria tries fiercely to stop a blush from rising to her face.  
“Molly! Wisteria is finally here!” Gideon yells as they walk into the kitchen.  
Wisteria sees a short, slightly plump woman with flaming red hair pulled up in a messy way.  
“Ah. Wisteria, I’ve heard a lot about you. These boys simply wouldn’t shut up about you.”  
“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley.”  
“Oh please, call me Molly. It makes me feel old when people call me Mrs. Weasley.” Almost as soon as the words leave her mouth a little boy with hair just as red as Molly’s comes wandering into the room. “Oh, Wisty this is my son Bill. His little brother is upstairs sleeping right now. “  
“How many kids are you planning on having?” Wisteria asks.  
“I want a little girl, but I don’t think I’m going to have another kid for a few years. Arthur and I need to save up enough to support another young one or two.”  
“Well I wish you all the best of luck with that. I have two sisters, an older one and a twin.”  
“Yes, the boys have told me about them. They say your older sister isn’t a wizard. Is that true?”  
“Yeah. She hasn’t spoken to me or Lily very much since we got our Hogwarts letters the first time, but we hope that she’ll come around one day.”  
“I hope so too. It must be difficult to have a sibling not talk to you.”  
“Oh it’s not so bad, as long as she’s happy I don’t mind so much. Do you need any help cooking?”  
“It should be done in just a few minutes, so I don’t think so. Thank you for the offer though.” As she says this Bill walk up to her and begins tugging on her leg. “Bill, sweety, mommy is trying to cook. Go back to your room.”  
Bill’s face starts to scrunch up and it looks like he’s going to cry, so before he can Wisteria scoops him up and spins him around a couple of times before resting him on her hip. “You mommy has to cook little one and the less you bug her the faster it’ll be done. Why don’t you play with me for a while, yeah?”  
Bill looks back at his mom and asks in a small voice. “What’re we gonna play?”  
“Whatever you want to play. What’s your favorite game?” Wisteria asks as she walks out of the room with Bill in her arms and Fabian and Gideon trailing behind.  
About 15 minutes later Molly finds them playing in the yard and tells them that dinner is ready. As they are sitting at the dining room table eating, Molly is helping Bill eat his food and she looks at Wisty to say, “You’re very good with kids. Do babysit often?”  
“Yeah. Growing up I had tons of friends that had little siblings and we used to use babysitting as an excuse to hang out.”  
“Well then, I just might use you as my babysitter from now.”  
“I would love that. Bill is very well behaved, isn’t that right little one?”  
Bill giggles and Molly smiles. “Hey Wisteria,” Fabian says. “After dinner would you want to go outside and play Quidditch with Fabian and I? We’re trying to make the team again next year and practice makes perfect.”  
“That sounds like fun. I’m trying to make the team too.”  
“Are you trying for Keeper again?” Gideon asks.  
“Yeah, are you guys trying for Beaters again?”  
“Actually we were gonna try for Chaser this time. The Gryffindor team needs some decent Chasers this year.”


	22. Year 3 - Part 1

Molly insisted on taking them to Kings Cross station at the end of summer. She also insisted on apparating there, a process they then had to explain to Wisteria, who had no idea what it was. After grabbing their trunks and other school things Fabian and Gideon grab onto Molly and Wisteria grabs onto Arthur and together the five of them apparate to Platform 9 ¾. At the platform Wisteria quickly finds her friends and says a quick goodbye to the Prewetts and Weasley’s before rushing over to them.

“So, how was your time with them? Did Fabian ask you out?” Christy asks right away.

Wisteria laughs. “Don’t you think I would have already told you if he had asked me out? And it was fine, thank you. I actually love their sister. She even let me teach her how to knit!”

“You know how to knit?” Jane asks.

“My grandmother taught me years ago. I don’t do it very often anymore though. Anyway, what about the Quidditch match? How was it?”

“Boring.” Christine says. “I think I’ve deciding I’m not trying out for the team this year.”

“Aww. What about you Shay? You’re still trying out right?” Wisteria asks.

“Yeah, I think so. What about you?”

“Of course. I practiced with Fabian and Gideon all month, so I’m more confident this time around. How was the wedding?”

“Oh it was beautiful! My sister looked lovely in her wedding dress!”

“What’s this about a wedding dress?” James asks as he approaches with Remus, Sirius, and Peter in tow. “Is Lily finally planning our wedding?”

Wisteria laughs. “You wish.”

“Yes, in fact I do.”

“What do you boys want?” Penelope asks.

“Only to talk.” Remus says.

“Actually we wanted your opinion on something.” Peter tells them.

“Oh really? And what might that be?” Wisteria asks.

“We were talking over the summer and we decided that when people talk about us it’s a pain in the butt to have to say ‘Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter’” Sirius says.

“What makes you think people would be talking about you?” Penelope asks.

“Oh please, everyone talks about us.” James says with a confident smile. “Anyway, like Sirius said, having to say all of our names is a bit of a hassle, so we were trying to come up with a group name. What do you girls think of ‘The Marauders’?”

“Marauders? As in people who steal and attack people?” Jane asks.

“We like to think of a Marauder as more of a mischief maker.” Sirius says with a smirk.

“But yes, he did say Marauder.” Remus says.

Wisteria laughs. “The Marauders… I suppose it does have a nice ring to it.”

“I like it.” Christine says.

Sirius smiles politely at Christine. “Then it’s decided. We are now, the Marauders. You pretty little ladies wouldn’t mind calling us that from now on would you? If enough people start saying it eventually it will stick.”

“Sure thing boys. We’ll see you later.” Shannon says as she leads the rest of the girls onto the train.

Once on the train the girls split up to find an empty compartment for them to sit in. While searching Wisteria wanders into a compartment and finds Regulus Black. At the sound of the door opening he turns and looks at her. Her heart rate picks up and her hands begin to shake as the usual fear sets in. But she soon remembers that Regulus isn’t anything like Mercury. As he looks at her there is no hint of malice in his eyes, just curiosity.

“Sorry.” Wisteria mumbles as she quickly leaves the compartment. Even if he isn’t as horrible as his brother, she still doesn’t want to cross him. The next cabin that Wisteria stumbles into is Fabian and Gideon’s .

“Oh. Hello boys. I’m just looking for an empty cabin for my friends and I.”

“You could always share this one with us. We don’t mind the company.” Fabian says smiling at her.

“That’s very kind of you, but-“ The train jolts as it begins moving and Wisteria is thrown into the cabin, right on top of Fabian.

Her face is so close to his that she can feel his breath on her face. Her heart skips a few beats and her breath gets caught in her throat as her face turns a shade of red that is darker than her hair.

“I-I-I…. I d-didn’t… Uh… Umm… I-I’m s-s… sorry.” She mumbles, her jaw trembling.

Fabians face turns a similar shade of red as her own and he bites down hard on his lip as she shakily stands back up, still mumbling. The cabin door opens again and Shannon walks in.

“Oh, Wisty! I was just looking for you. Pen found a cabin for us.” Shannon notices the look on everyone’s faces in the cabin her eyes widen. “Am I interrupting something?”

“No no, n-not at all.” Wisteria says, stumbling her way to Shannon’s side. “I’ll see you boys later. Let’s go Shay.” Wisteria drags her friend out of the compartment and then closes the door and leans against it, willing the redness of her face to go down.

“What happened?” Shannon asks.

“If you take me to the others I only have to say it once.” Wisteria says.

A few minutes later Wisteria is sitting with her friends and she has just told them all what happened when she was in the cabin with the Prewetts.

Jane and Penelope are cracking up and Christine and Shannon can’t seem to stop smiling.    

“You guys are totally going to be dating by the end of this year!” Christine says.

“Shut up!” Wisteria yells, her face flushing again.

“Oh come on.” Jane says. “You may have completely embarrassed yourself in there, but if he does like you, like everyone thinks he does, then maybe he enjoyed it.”

Wisteria looks horrified. “Don’t worry darling.” Penelope says. “That boy is head over heels for you. I would tell you that you should refer to the incident in a flirty way in front of him, but knowing you, you would just freak out and embarrass yourself even further. So instead, just act as if that whole incident never happened and act normally around him. It’ll be fine.”

“Your right. I’ll just ignore the fact the whole thing even happened. Now I’m glad I’m not in the same house as him. I don’t have to see him all the time. That would make ignoring that incident a lot harder.”


	23. Year 3 - Part 2

The first weeks of school seemed to fly by in no time at all, leaving Wisteria scrambling to find a birthday present for Michael. He was still refusing to talk to her, but she hadn’t given up hope yet. He is still taking classes meant for kids a year or two older and he doesn’t eat with the rest of the school anymore, so Wisteria hardly ever sees him. On one of the first days of school she went to the kitchens to talk to Deedee and asked her,

“Does he come down here to eat?”

“Sometimes, but he says he’s busy Wisty. He often forgets to eat all together.”

“Can you do me a huge favor Deede?”

“Of course Wisty! Deedee would do anything for Wisty!”

“I want you to make sure that he eats at least once a day alright? So if he doesn’t come down here for food, please bring some up to his room at the end of the day. I worry that he’s going to accidentally starve himself.”

Deedee nods her head vigorously. “Deedee will make sure he eats, Deedee promises!”

“Thank you Deedee.”

Now, nearly two months later and only days away from Michael’s birthday, Wisteria is pacing around the kitchen, ranting to Christine and Penelope.

“I don’t know what I did wrong! Why isn’t he talking to me still? Did I mess up so horribly that I scared him off entirely? I don’t remember saying anything too forward. What if he can read minds or something? Not that I was thinking anything that might have scared him off… But if he could read minds then he would know that now I don’t feel like that about him anymore. Unless when he read my mind before it scared him so much he hasn’t tried it since then…”

“I’m pretty sure he can’t read minds Wist.” Christine says.

“You never know Christy! He is so good at everything, what if he is secretly an expert with legilimency?”

“I just don’t understand why you only started panicking about this now. It’s been a year, why are you suddenly so bothered by it?” Penelope asks.

“I’ve always been bothered by it it’s just that now it’s been a whole year and I don’t even see him in the hallway or during meals and I have no idea if he’s eating or sleeping or doing anything humans need to do in order to stay healthy and sane and it’s not that I like him now, because I will admit I did before, its just that now I see him as a brother that’s locked himself away in his room and wont come out! I’m worried about him and I want to make sure that he’s okay and I want him back as a friend, but I don’t know how to do that when I no longer know anything about him! And now I have a chance to maybe change his mind about talking to me since his birthday is coming up, but I have no idea what to get him and if the gift isn’t absolutely positively perfect he could hate me forever and never talk to me again and I would never know what I did wrong!”

“Ohhh!” Christy exclaims. “I get it now, it’s not that you’re just now upset about him not talking to you, it’s that now you’re worried that you’ll never know why he stopped to begin with. You hate it when people are upset with you and the fact that he is so obviously upset with you and you have absolutely no idea why is driving you insane!”

Wisteria sighs. “Thank you for summing that up so bluntly Christy.”

“Honestly darling I still don’t see what the big deal is. So one person doesn’t like you, why does that matter?” Penelope asks.

“It’s not that _one_ person doesn’t like me, plenty of people don’t like me.”

“Oh really? Because everyone that I’ve seen think that you are the cutest thing since Pigmy Puffs. Who doesn’t like you?” Christine asks.

“Mercury and his gang for starters.”

“I don’t think they count. They had previous prejudices against something about you that you can’t help.” Penelope says. “I’m sure that if they didn’t have those they would have loved you. I mean, even while hating you Lucius still stares at you with a lusty look in his eye all the time.”

“Don’t remind me about Lucius. He almost cornered me in the hallway the other day, I barely managed to get away. Anyway, like I said, it’s not the fact that someone doesn’t like me that bothers me. It’s the fact that one of my friends suddenly doesn’t like and I don’t know why.”

“Then let’s take baby steps and start with this birthday present. How long do you have to figure it out?” Christine asks.

“His birthday is on Sunday.”

“And you are just now worrying about this? In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s already Friday night!” Christine exclaimes.

“You think I don’t know that? I’ve been wracking my brain for weeks and I have no ideas at all!”

“Well it’s not as if we know him very well, so we can’t really help you, but when it comes to gifts I always say when in doubt, write a heartfelt note.” Penelope suggests.

“I send him letters all the time though, that wouldn’t be anything special.”

“Well what are his interests?” Christine asks.

“I don’t know! He never liked to talk about himself! The only thing I know for sure that he likes is cheesecake! And even then I’m not sure if he still likes it!”

“Just make one for him and send him a letter saying that you hope he still enjoys it or something.” Penelope says.

“I suppose I could do that…”

“Of course you can! You are an amazing cook. Just ask Deedee if you could help her bake the cake Sunday. I’m sure she’d be thrilled to have you bake something with her.” Christine tells her.

“Hey Deedee.”

“Yes Wisty?”

“You wouldn’t mind if I helped you bake a cake for Michael on Sunday would you? And then you could deliver it to his room after dinner that night along with a note from me? It’s his birthday and I want to do something for him.”

Deedee smiles widely. “Of course Wisty! Deedee will definitely help Wisty cook for Master Alderton!”

“Thank you so much Deedee. I really appreciate it.”

“No Wisty, Deedee really appreciates it! Deedee has never had a witch ask to help her before. This truly is an exciting day for Deedee!”

A couple days later Michael is sitting on his bed working hard on his Arithmancy homework when Deedee pops into his room, same as she’s been doing for a few months now.

“Hello Deedee.” He says politely as he waits to hear the pop that would mean that she had left. Instead he hears her little voice say,

“Today is an exciting day Master Alderton.”

“And why is that Deedee?” He asks, only half paying attention to her.

“Today Wisty helped Deedee bake a cake!”

Michael freezes at her name and glances at Deedee to find her carrying a large cheesecake in her arms. He reaches out and takes it from her while asking, “And why would she do that?”

“Because Master Alderton, it’s your birthday!”

“No it’s not.”

Deedee looks confused. “But Wisty says it is. Did Wisty get it wrong?”

“I’m glad you had a nice night with Wisty, Deedee. Get some rest okay? Goodnight.”

Deedee frowns, but leaves with a popping sound. As Michael continues to study the cake he notices a letter sitting next to it. He tells himself to ignore it, to throw it away, but somewhere inside him he knows it’s from Wisty and he doesn’t want to just throw away something she wrote for him. With a sigh, he opens the letter and smiles down at her familiar handwriting.

Dear Michael,

I know we haven’t talked in a while, but I hope you are still doing okay. I trust your new classes are going fine? You always were incredibly smart, I’m not even surprised to hear that your already working on stuff a few years above the rest of us. I remember you telling me once that you liked Cheesecake with a passion, so I made you some, I hope you like it. I miss you, you know? I miss talking to you and being your friend. I don’t know why you stopped talking to me, but I hope that this doesn’t continue on for much longer.

Anyway, I want to make sure to remind you that you need to eat and sleep properly. Just because you have a lot of homework doesn’t mean that the best option is to stay awake until you pass out from sleep exhaustion. Lily and I were in the infirmary the other day (don’t worry, we’re both fine, we were visiting a sick friend) and we decided that we wanted to take a few basic healing lessons from Madame Pomfrey. She graciously allowed it and Lily have been meeting her on the weekends for a couple weeks now and so far I’ve learned a lot. Like how important sleep and food are for humans and animals alike. I know you like to say that you can take it, but please just don’t take it too far. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Which is why I told Deedee to make sure you at least had food sitting in your room for you to eat when you decide you need it.

Sorry for the long letter and I hope you’ve had a great day. Happy Birthday Michael

-From, your friend Wisty

After finishing the letter, Michael closes his eyes and whispers a small “Thank you.” Before throwing the letter on top of all the others sitting in the corner of his room.

Nearly a week later all the students are in the Great Hall waiting for their Halloween feast. Wisteria sits down in between Jane and Penelope and across from Christine and Shannon as the five of them discuss the decorations around the room.

“I don’t see why you all are so excited by them. They do this every year.” Penelope points out.

“Yeah, but it’s my favorite time of year! I can’t help, but to get excited!” Wisteria says excitedly.

“Oh, I totally forgot to ask how it went with Michael.” Christine says.

“Michael?” Asks Shannon. “I thought he was still giving you the cold shoulder.”

“He is. I sent him a birthday present is all. And actually I have no idea. Deedee delivered the gift for me, so I didn’t actually get to talk to him, but he never responded so…”

“Honestly I think he’s kind of a jerk.” Jane says. “I mean what guy would just ditch you like that?”

“What guy ditched who?” Fabian asks as he stands behind Wisteria.

“We’re talking about Michael still not talking to Wisty.” Penelope tells him.

“Oh. Do you still like him?”

“Well, of course I do. I’ll always consider him my friend, even if he isn’t talking to me.”

“No, I meant…”

“Oh, you meant if I have a _crush_ on him. Well, no. I suppose it’s hard to like someone like that when you haven’t spoken to them in a year.”

“That’s good.”

“What’s good?”

“That you don’t like him like that anymore.”

“And why is that a good thing?” Wisteria asks, ignoring her friends as they smile knowing smiles at her and Fabian.

“Well, because I was wondering… I mean, we’re third years now, so… It’s just that this year we can finally go to Hogsmeade.”

“Yes, I know.”

“And because of that I was just… I wa-wanted to… to know if… i-if you would possibly, maybe, considering going to Hogsmeade with me next weekend. Like-like as a… date. With you being my date, or girlfriend or… something.”

In her head Wisteria had always imagined that when someone asked her out she would be cool and flirty. But, just like last time, this time around her face flushes a deep red color and her heart hammers so hard she can’t hear anything else and she can’t seem to breath enough to do anything more than whisper, “Sure.”

Fabians eyes widen and he smiles that true goofy smile of his. “Really? You’ll go on a date with me?”

“Yes.” Wisteria squeaks, giggling nervously.

“Wonderful! I’ll see you in class later then! Bye!”

As soon as he’s gone Wisteria sucks in a huge breath and her hands begin to shake. She presses one hand to hear chest and blocks out the excited, squealing voices of her friends as she focuses on getting her heart rate back down and her face less flushed. Once she accomplishes that she moves to pick up a piece of food to find her hands still shaking.

“I think I’m going to go to bed.”

“Why?” Christine asks looking confused.

“What’s wrong?” Shannon asks with a look of concern on her face.

“Did you panic and accidentally say yes when you really meant to say no so now you’re panicking because you don’t know what to do so you’re going to bed in hopes that this has all just been some crazy nightmare?” Jane asks all in one breath.

Wisteria laughs. “No, nothing like that Jane. I just… I don’t want to say that I’ve lost my appetite because that makes it sound bad, but I’m not hungry anymore. I’m in shock I guess. I didn’t really expect him to ask me out. Anyway, I’ll see you guys later.


	24. Year 3 - Part 3

Quidditch tryouts had come around again, meaning Wisteria was standing in the Quiddtich Pitch with Shannon, both of them shivering in the sudden cold air. The two girls look around at everyone else trying out and Wisteria’s resolve sinks.

“I don’t stand a chance of making the team.”

“Of course you do. Stop saying that.”

“I’m just saying, it’s not likely that a mere third year like me will make the team, not with so many older students here. Older students who were born and raised riding broomsticks and watching this game being played. I don’t stand a chance!”

“I made the team last year and I was younger then. Besides, now you get to try out for Keeper. Last year you were out of your comfort zone, you’ve got this!”

Wisteria takes a deep breath. “You’re right. I got this.” She continues to repeat those three words to herself throughout the entire tryout time. In the end she didn’t make it, but the captain assured her that if she came back next year she stood a real chance at getting the Keeper position. Shannon got the seeker position and apologized all night to Wisteria for getting her hopes up for nothing.

“It’s fine. If anything, your confidence boost probably allowed to do as good as I did. Plus, the captain did take notice, so that’s something right?”

“Yeah I guess… I just feel bad.”

“Well don’t. Come on, we’re supposed to meet up with the others.”

A few days later, Fabian meets Wisteria at the front of the school so they can go on their date. The thought made him smile. A date. He is going on a date with Wisty. When she shows up she looks as pretty as usual. Her red hair is pulled up into a ponytail and she’s wearing a big shirt, leggings, and a leather jacket.

Suddenly Fabian feels panicked. How is he supposed to act around her now? They’re dating right? Is he supposed to hold her hand? Is that too forward? What about kissing? He’s never kissed anyone before. Has she? Would she initiate a kiss, or should he? Would she reach out with her hand, or should she?

Then she’s there, right in front of him and smiling. “Are you okay? You look a little freaked out.” She says.

“I’m doing great now that you’re here.” He says and cringes at how cheesy it sounds.

She giggles a little and that makes him feel much better. Maybe this date wont crash and burn. As soon as the thought crosses his head he starts panicking again. Should he hold her hand? When is an appropriate time to initiate hand holding? Do people do that on a first date?

Wisteria gives him a weird look. “Are we gonna go?”

“Oh! Yeah, right. Let’s go.” He says awkwardly and abruptly turns to walk way. _You should have grabbed her hand. Just hold it, you idiot, that’s what couples do!_ He yells at himself, but by the time he works up the courage to look for her hand to hold, she had stuffed both of them in her jacket pockets.

He silently curses himself for waiting too long and then realizes that they are walking in a rather awkward silence.

“So, how have you been? I haven’t seen you in a few days.” He says.

“Yeah, sorry. I’ve been kind of busy. This date is going to be a much needed break.”

He glances at her as she talks and notices her light blush at the word “date”. So she feels kind of awkward too. That’s nice to know. “Is there anywhere in particular you wanna go?”

“Well I’ve never been before, so I was hoping we could just explore. Maybe see a little bit of everything?”

“That works for me.”

They fall into another awkward silence and he wrecks his brain for something to talk about. “Tell me about life in the Muggle world.”

She looks at him surprised. “Muggle world in general, or my life in it?” She asks.

“I guess your life.”

“Well, it wasn’t incredibly different from this, just pretend that magic doesn’t exist. We went to school and took classes, some people liked some of them, others didn’t like some of them. There was drama. People made friends and enemies and boyfriends.”

“Did you have any friends, enemies, or… boyfriends?”

“I had a couple of friends. Lizzy and Tori. That was it mainly. We were a trio of outcasts, with me at the helm. As for enemies, I suppose you could say that would have been half the school. I wasn’t a very popular person. And I actually did have a boyfriend. I think I’ve mentioned him before, but maybe you weren’t there for that. His name was John Taylor. I broke it off with him when I realized I would be going to Hogwarts.”

“Oh… Do you miss it?”

“I miss my friends, and I regret not properly ending things with John. I just sent him a letter, how shitty is that? But I enjoy my life here and my friends here.” She moves a little closer to him as they walk and he smiles.

Throughout the rest of the day the two talked and joked and laughed like always. It wasn’t until they got back to the castle and he walked her to the Ravenclaw common room and she was about to leave that he finally worked up the courage to grab her hand. He grabs it as she is about to walk away and she freezes, looks at their hands, and then back up at him.

“Goodnight, Wisty.” He says.

It wasn’t until she said, “Goodnight Fabian.” And then looked back at their hands that he realized he was still holding her hand. He hastily let go and gave her an awkward nod before she entered the common room and he walked away, still cursing himself for being so awkward.

Wisteria had to endure many questions about the date that night. Eventually she just ignored all of her friends and tried to fall asleep. Her brain was in overdrive though. Overall the date wasn’t bad, but it was kind of awkward from time to time, and it didn’t necessarily feel any different than when they would hang out before. Was it supposed to feel any different? Eventually she decided that she was overthinking things and just needed to clear her head. Wisteria waited until everyone in her room was asleep before getting out of bed and sneaking out to the Black Lake.

When she gets there she looks up at the sky. The sun has just set and the full moon is just becoming visible over the horizon. She uses her knowledge of astronomy to search the sky for any planets or constellations that might be visible. She finds Orion quickly and then her eyes flick over to Canis Major. After a few moments of this, she is finally getting tired when she hears a howl rip through the night. It makes all the hair stand up on her skin and a chill run down her spine. She sits up and looks around to find a massive figured coming her way.

She scrambles to stand up, as the figure looms closer, but soon realizes that it’s not some monster. It’s a person. Just a really really big person.

“What do yah think yer doing out at this hour of the night?” The figure asks. “There are rules fer a reason yah know.”

“I’m sorry sir.”

“Gah.” The giant man says, waving a dismissive hand. “Don’t call me sir.”

“Sorry… Please don’t tell me I’m in trouble, I just couldn’t sleep and wanted to see the sky and I never get in trouble! I’m sorry for being out this late.”

“Don’t worry, yer not in trouble. I’m not a teacher anyhow, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. Still though, yah hear that howl?”

Wisteria shivers just thinking about it. “Yes.”

“That’s a werewolf in these here woods, so yah be sure to get back inside the castle and safe to bed, yah hear?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Wisteria scrambles back up to the castle, but almost as soon as she enters she runs face first into something. The force of it knocks her back onto her butt and she looks up to see Sirius, also on his butt on the ground.

“Wisty? What is it with you and sneaking out?”

“I like being rebellious.” She says as she stands up. It’s then that she notices that James and Peter are with him. “Where’s Remus?”

Peter pales and James’ smile suddenly looks forced. “We couldn’t convince him to come with us this time.” Sirius says.

Wisteria narrows her eyes slightly at him. He’s lying, she can tell. Remus may be more of a rule follower than them, but he wouldn’t just ditch them like that. Unless he was sick again, but why would they lie about him being sick? And why do Peter and James look so panicked? “What are you guys up to anyway?” She asks.

“Well we could ask you the same question.” Sirius points out.

“I couldn’t sleep, wanted to see the sky. Are you guys going outside?”

“That was the plan.” James says.

“You shouldn’t. I just ran into some really big man out there and-“

“You ran into Hagrid?” Peter asks.

“I don’t know what his name is, but I suppose so. Anyway, he told me that there’s a werewolf in the forest right now!”

At these words all of the boys pale considerably. “Thanks for letting us know, but we actually are going to talk to Hagrid, so I’m sure we’ll be fine. It’ll only take a few minutes anyway.” Sirius tells her.

He’s lying again. What is with them tonight? Why would they need to lie like this? “Okay, well be careful. I don’t want any of my friends getting hurt become some monster is running around in the Forest.” The three of them flinch slightly at the word monster and a theory dawns on Wisteria. No… It can’t be… “What day is today?” Wisteria asks them.

They look taken aback. “The 10 th .” James tells her.

“No, I meant, day of the week.”

“Saturday.” Peter says.

“Okay… good…”

“Why is that good?” Peter asks.

“It doesn’t matter to you three right now. Anyway, I’m gonna go sit up in the common room until morning, because there is no way I’m sleeping after the night I’ve had.”

“Okay. Have a nice night.” James says.

“Goodnight!” Wisteria says, and then runs off. When she gets to the Common Room she lays down on a couch, her mind racing.  _ Remus gets “sick” a lot, in fact, just about once a month. Sometimes the other Marauders sneak out without Remus, or sometimes with a very sick Remus in tow. When have I seen that happen? When I sneak out to sit by the lake. What have each of those nights been like? Clear sky. Full moon. I heard a howl, Hagrid said there was a werewolf, and Remus wasn’t with the boys. I mentioned the werewolf, the Marauders panicked, I called it a monster, and they flinched. Sirius was lying about something. What did he lie about? Why Remus wasn’t with them, and what they were doing. But this is all just speculation. What if I’m wrong? I need to talk to someone. But who? The Marauders will deny everything, but if it is true then I can’t just tell anyone. Who do I tell? Lily. Lily knows them, she’s friends with Remus, she’s trustworthy. Right? Yes. I’ll ask her about it in the morning. _

       The next day, Lily is on her way to the Great all for breakfast when Wisteria appears seemingly out of nowhere and roughly grabs her arm. 

       "Hey!" Lily protests. "What are you doing?"

       "We need to talk. Now. It's urgent."

       Lily stops fighting her and allows her sister to lead her through the school to an empty classroom. Wisteria wouldn't have said it's urgent unless that was true. "What's going on?"

Wisteria is shaking, there are dark circles under her eyes, her hair is a mess, and she’s wearing the same clothes as yesterday. “I don’t know what to do.” She says. “I feel crazy and I don’t want to be right, but what if I am? I can’t be sure unless I get another opinion, but I can just tell anyone because if it is true he probably doesn’t want anyone to know and I can’t talk to the boys because they would deny everything if I’m right and if I’m wrong then I’m crazy and so I came to you.”

“Jesus Wisty, what’s going on? You look horrible. Did you sleep last night?”

Wisteria shakes her head no. “I tried, but I couldn’t!”

“Okay.” Lily says carefully, now really worried about her twin. “Sit down, lets talk.”

Lily sit’s down, but Wisty remains standing, pacing around the room. “Lily do you know that-that spell to make a room soundproof? Or to protect against eavesdroppers or whatever.”

“Yes?”

“Can you… can you do that on this room. I don’t want anyone knowing what we’re talking about.”

Lily obliges. “I’m assuming that means that I can’t tell anyone either right?”

“No! No one can know…”

“Wisty, you’re scaring me. Just tell me what it is that has you so freaked out.”

Wisteria takes a deep breath and turns to face Lily. “This might sound crazy.”

“You already sound crazy, just tell me already!”

“I think Remus might be a werewolf.”

There’s a pregnant moment of silence while Lily just stares at her sister. At first she’s trying to figure out if maybe this was just some stupid joke all along, but the look on her sister’s face and the way she’s been acting up until saying those words let’s Lily know that she is very serious indeed. Then she’s trying to find merit in what Wisteria said. Remus? A werewolf? She works her way through the arguments for and against the theory before asking Wisteria, “What is your reasoning for thinking that?”

“Don’t freak out, but sometimes I sneak out at night and there have been a few occasions where I’ve run into the Marauders and Remus either wasn’t with them or was nearly unconscious and they were just dragging him along. Each time they looked freaked out that someone had seen them and told me some lie about what they were doing. Think about it! Remus gets sick nearly every month because of his ‘weak immune system’. No one has an immune system that weak! And when does he get sick? During the full moon. Every time. If you don’t believe me you can find a calendar of the moon cycles, but I’ve already done that and I swear I’m right. Last night I was by the lake, it was a full moon and I heard a werewolf. Hagrid told me so! Then I saw the boys sneaking out as well, but with no Remus. Am I crazy or is this actually a possibility?”

Lily stares at her sister and her heart races. “You’re not crazy. It actually makes some sense, but…”

“I don’t want it to be true. Is our friend a monster?”

Lily nearly slaps her. “You’re joking right?”

“What? It’s a legitimate question!”

“If he is a werewolf that doesn’t automatically make him a monster, just like us being wizards didn’t make us monsters! We just… we know something new about him now. Maybe… assuming this is correct. He’s not a monster. He’s still Remus, otherwise he wouldn’t be a Marauder.”

“You’re right. So what do we do? Do we confront them?”

“We need a plan first. We should do some research and see if there is anyway that we can help them. We should read up on werewolves, double check everything first. Then we’ll… then we’ll figure out what to do.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


#  Chapter Twenty-Seven

Wisteria meets Lily in an empty classroom a week or so after break ends.

“Okay, lets talk our way through this first, and then we’ll go to them.” Lily says. The sisters sit in the classroom for a little over an hour talking each other through the plan and making sure they have all their facts right. When they feel confident in the plan, they make their way to Gryffindor tower.

Lily lets her sister in and together they climb the flight of stairs leading up to the boys rooms and search the dorms until they find the one with the Marauders names on it. The girls glance at each other and then Lily reaches up and knocks on the door. A few moments later the door opens to reveal James.

His eyes widen and a small smile comes to his face as he looks at Lily. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Is Remus here?” Lily asks, somewhat ignoring his question.

James’ face falls a little before he answers. “No. Why?”

“Perfect. Are the rest of you in there?”

“Yes. What’s going on?”

“Can we come in? We need to talk to you.”

James gives them a weird look. “Yeah sure, just give me a minute.” He closes the door and it opens about a minute later as he lets them into the room. “So what is this about?”

The girls take a deep breath. They had already decided who would say what, so they didn’t even need to look at each other before starting.

“We have a question for you and we expect an honest answer. Keep in mind we are your friends and we would never do anything that would hurt you, that goes for Remus too. There is a reason we don’t want him here, but that’s because we have his well being in mind and that will come into play in a minute, but for now we just want a completely honest answer to our question.” Lily starts, staring right at James.

“What is it?” He asks.

Wisteria is the one to answer. “Is Remus a werewolf?”

The silence after the question is asked is nearly painful, but the answer was evident on the boys faces. They all looked horrified and the girls knew they were right, but still waited for an answer. When no one offered one, the girls moved on anyway.

“He’s our friend. We care about him and want to help.” Wisteria tells them.

“Which is why, we’ve spent a while looking up every possible thing we could find about werewolves.” Lily says. “What we found is that there are many wizards who are researching a possible potion that could help, but so far on one has managed to get it right. Other than that there weren’t any mentions of anyway to help, but-“

“Werewolves don’t go after animals.” Wisteria takes over. “So if someone is an animagus and just uses that form then all should be good. So if you become animagi, then you can stay with him all night and not be in nearly as much danger.”

Then Lily continues, “The only problems are that Remus probably wouldn’t want you to do it, so we need to keep it from him, and you’re supposed to register as an animagus, but if you do that then you will be questioned on why you are doing it and that will bring up uncomfortable questions.”

“So, the obvious thing to do would be to keep it secret. But the process is long and difficult so we need to know that you are in 100%.” Wisteria finishes that part of their little script. When none of them say anything still she makes eye contact with each of them in turn. “Could one of you please say something because you’re honestly freaking me out.”

Sirius is the first one to speak. “You figured it out that last time we ran into after curfew didn’t you?”

Wisteria gulped. “Yeah. You’re a pretty good liar Sirius, but so am I. I know the tricks. Plus you’re roommates aren’t the best liars. They were mostly the ones who gave it away.”

Sirius chuckles a little and leans his head against a wall. “Alright. So you have this plan. We’re gonna become animagi, and we’re gonna help Remus. Can you tell us more?”

“We want to know that you guys are up for it first.” Lily says.

“I’m in. I’ll help him no matter what it takes.” Sirius says without a moment’s hesitation.

“Me too.” James says a second after.

Everyone in the room looks expectantly at Peter. “I want to, but… I-I don’t know if I can. That’s really advanced stuff and its supposed to be really hard. What happens if I mess up somewhere along the way?”

“You won’t. I swear it.” Wisteria says, putting her hands on his shoulders. “We’ll all be right here with you the whole time. We’ll make sure that nothing goes wrong.”

He still looks afraid, but he bites his lip, puts on a brave face, and nods. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Okay,” Wisteria smiles at him and steps back to move onto the next part of their plan and address all three of the boys. “There are three steps to becoming an animagus. Step one and two involve these.” She says as she hands them each a bag of leaves “These are Mandrake leaves. For one month you have to keep one of these in your mouth at all times.

“At the end of each day you need to take it out and follow this recipe,” She says as she gives them each a parchment and bag of ingredients, “And create the potion using the Mandrake leaf you had in your mouth all day. Now, hold out your hands.”  They do as they are told and one by one she places a temporary charm on their wrists so that they read ‘ _ Amato Animo Animato Animagus _ ’.

“After drinking the potion each day you need to say that incantation. You must perform every step perfectly or this could possibly end in disaster for any one of you. Lily and I will be there to help, but it’s still dangerous, especially since we don’t want Remus to know. Which brings me to another point. We don’t want you guys accidentally spitting up Mandrake leaves in the middle of a conversation, which would bring up many questions we don’t want to answer. Lily and I recommend telling Remus that you are all taking a vow of silence to protest something. If you guys have any questions, just ask Lily or I. Understand?”

The boys nod and James looks up from the bag in his hands. “Thank you. This means a lot.”

Lily smiles at him. “We just hope it works and does some good. You are smart boys despite what everyone thinks. I hope you can pull this off.”

“So do I.” Sirius says.

        On her way back to the common room, Wisteria turns down a hall to find Lucius and Narcissa talking with their backs to her and Regulus and Severus standing in front of them, now staring right at her. Wisteria’s breath catches in her throat and her mind struggles to figure out what to do. Before she can come up with something Regulus clenches his jaw and looks at the Slytherin’s in front of him.

       “Let’s go get some food. I’m starving.” He says to them.

       "Yeah, so am I." Severus agrees.

       “I thought you didn’t want to go to the Great Hall tonight?” The Slytherin girl says.

       “Well my hunger won out. I need food, so lets go.”

       Lucius shrugs. “Alright, whatever.”

       Regulus glances at Wisteria one more time before the three of them walk off down the hallway in the opposite direction. Wisteria’s heart beat returns to normal and she stands for a minute trying to figure out why he would have helped her. It makes sense for Severus to help, but Regulus? Before she can come to a conclusion, the Prewett twins find her.

       “Wisty?” Fabian asks. “What are you doing?”

       “Huh? Nothing. How are you guys doing?”

       “We’re alright. Just heading to lunch. Wanna join us?”

       “Sure. Let’s go.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


#  Chapter Twenty-Eight

Fabian was sitting in Charms in between his brother and James when he was invited to James’ birthday party. He accepted and then look up at Wisteria who was sitting on the other side of the room in between Jane and Penelope.

_Have you been invited to James’ birthday party yet?_ He jots down on the desk in front of him. They’ve put the charm on their desks in all the classes they have together now.

_Of course I have._ She responds a few moments later. _The Marauders asked Lily and I this morning. I think James figured she was less likely to say no if I was with her when he asked._

_Did she say no?_

Of course not. And even if she had, I would drag her along anyway. I did have to convince her out of inviting Severus though.

She wanted to invite that snake?

Wisteria looks up to give him a small glare from across the room. _Keep in mind that ‘that snake’ is my friend too. And yes, she wanted to invite him. I know that it only would have ended in a fight, so I shut that idea down quick. The rest of the girls are coming though, Lily’s friends and mine._

Fabian takes a moment to lean over to James and whisper, “What are we gonna do at the party anyway?” 

“I dunno, play Truth or Dare or Spin the Bottle or some other party game probably.” 

Two nights later on the night of the party the lot of them were sitting in a circle in the Room of Requirements trying to figure out a game to play. 

“We could play Spin the Bottle.” Sirius suggest.  

“Of course that’d be your request.” Penelope says rolling her eyes.

“What can I say.” Sirius says with an unashamed shrug accompanied by his signature smirk. “I’m always in the mood to kiss pretty girls and tonight they outnumber the guys enough to where I like my chances.” 

Jane and Emmeline scrunch up their noses at that while Marlene glances at Sirius with renewed interest. “You mean that we wouldn’t play it where only guys could kiss girls and vice versa?” Jane asks. 

“Why would we?” Sirius responds. “It’s no fun unless you run the risk of having to platonically kiss your best mate. Not that I wouldn’t mind kissing any of the Marauders.” He winks at each of them in turn. Emmeline, looking uncomfortable, suggests that they find something else to play instead. 

“What about Never Have I Ever?” Marlene suggests. 

“No offense Mar,” Lily says, “But I’m pretty sure that the only people in our group to have done anything remotely interesting enough to make that game fun are you and Sirius.” 

Marlene shrugs. “I suppose that’s true.” 

“Okay then, what else do we have?” Christine asks. 

Fabian smirks “How about Truth or Dare?” 

“Oh come on Fabs.” Alice says. “That game’s only fun when you’re drunk.” 

“Actually I like the sound of playing that.” Remus says. “I’m sure we can keep it interesting while sober, seeing as we’re underage.” 

A massive smile spreads across James’ face. “Alright then, lets play. I’ll start, it is my birthday after all. So, Sirius, Truth or Dare?” 

“Dare.” Sirius responds, no hesitation. 

“You said you wouldn’t mind kissing one of the Marauders, prove it. I dare you to kiss one of us.” 

Sirius mentally weighs his options for a moment before scooting closer to Peter. “Alright then, come on Peter buddy, pucker up.” 

Peter’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm as he squeals loudly, “WHAT!” 

“You heard my dare, I’ve gotta kiss one of you! James has already sworn himself to Lily, so he’s off limits,” Lily scoffs at that. “And I’m already so attracted to Remus that I might actually get a boner if I kiss him.” All the girls but Marlene react to that with wide eyes and screeches of protest, but Sirius continues, undeterred. “So that leaves you. It’ll be over quick, I promise.” 

Peter simply sits there shell shocked with his jaw hanging open, so Sirius rolls his eyes, reaches over, grabs his jaw to close his mouth and gives him a quick peck on the lips. This act leaves Peter sputtering and bright in the face, Sirius smirking, and everyone else either cracking up or looking uncomfortable. 

Sirius, not so much as blushing, immediately moves on. “Gideon, truth or dare?” 

Gideon thinks for a moment and then says wit a determined look in his eye, “Dare.” 

“Alright, I dare you to…” He pauses, considering the endless options before finally deciding on one. “Dress up in drag for the rest of the game.” 

Gideon narrows his eyes. “Where am I even going to find the stuff needed to dress in drag?” 

“We’re in the Room of Requirement aren’t we? Just think about need a dress, heels, makeup, a wig, whatever. I’ll even be nice and say the girls can help you with your makeup.” 

Gideon glares slightly and chews at his bottom lip before shrugging and accepting his fate. “Alright, fine. I’ll dress in drag, just know that my vengeance will be coming. Watch your back Black.” 

Sirius smirks. “I look forward to it Prewett.” 

Thirty minutes of random chatter and arguing over what dress, heels, and makeup to put Gideon in, he’s finally dressed in full drag and everyone sits back down in their original circle, chuckling over Gideon who makes quick work of moving on with the game.

“Wisty, truth or dare?” Wisteria pretends to think about it, but she learned her lesson a long time ago to never say dare in this game. 

“Truth.” She says finally, ignoring the slight ping in her chest as Christine, Marlene, and Alice all roll their eyes with mumbles of ‘lame’ under their breath. 

Gideon considers this for a moment and then smirks. “What was your first kiss like?” 

“Oh come on Gideon. That’s so personal.” Lily complains 

“Lily, it’s truth or dare. The truth’s are supposed to be personal. Besides, I don’t mind talking about it at all.” Wisteria says.

Lily’s eyes widen. “What? But you never even told  _ me  _ about your first kiss.” 

“You never asked. Anyway, it wasn’t really anything special. I’m sure I’ve mentioned my ex before, right? John?” The others nod. “It was after school, we were at the arcade and he kissed me. Honestly the most noteworthy part of the whole experience was the fact that one of his fangirls saw it and the entire school was buzzing about it the next day. I got some pretty nasty looks until he kissed me again, this time in front of everyone, and told them all to shut up. Needless to say, they listened to him. It’d be like Sirius telling his fangirls to shut up about something, they’d do it.” 

“There you go again, comparing me to your ex. Got a secret thing for me Wisty?” Sirius asks, winking.

“In case you haven’t heard, I’m dating Fabian.”

“I know, but he could always be a cover up.” 

Out of the corner of her eye Wisty sees a look of self doubt and panic sweep over Fabian’s face and gets angry at Sirius for taking it too far. “Sorry to burst your egocentric bubble Sirius, but that’s not how I roll. I like Fabian, I’m dating Fabian, end of story.” 

Sirius seems to get the message because he shoots Fabian and apologetic look and puts his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, sorry. I was just joking around.” 

Satisfied with his apology, Wisteria continues with the game. “Sirius, truth or dare?” 

“Oh come on!” He groans loudly. “How is that fair, why is everyone picking on me! That’s practically twice in a row for me! Choose someone else!” 

“Nope, now answer the question Black, truth or dare?” 

He pouts dramatically and mumbles “Dare.” Lily rolls her eyes, already knowing what her twin in planning, since she does this every time they play this game. 

“I dare you to sneak into the kitchen and get me a pizza.” Wisteria says with a confident smile.

His eyes widen and he looks at her with some interest before chuckling. “I like the way you roll Wisty, nicely played.” And he stands up, leaving the room to carry out his dare. He returns a while later and places the pizza down next to Wisteria who smiles broadly and starts digging in. 

Sirius plops himself back down and scan the group. “Before I continue, I’m gonna say it right here, right now, once someone has already been asked, you can’t ask them again until everyone has gotten their share.” They all nod in silent agreement and he continues. “Marlene, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to kiss Peter.” 

Peter squeaks again, “No! I am not being kissed again!” 

Sirius rolls his eyes, feigning annoyance. “Fine, I suppose I’ll have to take one for the team. Marlene, I dare you to kiss me.” She smirks and him and crawls across the group until she sits in front of him and wraps her arms around his neck as his come around her waist. They kiss for a few moments before she draws away and sits back down in her normal seat. 

Penelope rolls her eyes at them and mumbles “Whores…” under her breath, earning a light smack from Wisteria. 

“Emmy,” Marlene moves on, “Truth or dare?” 

Emmeline swallows nervously, “Truth.” 

“What is the most childish thing you still do?” 

“Well… I still sleep with my baby blanket?” 

Marlene laughs good naturedly. “Yeah, that’s pretty childish.” 

Emmeline smiles and turns to Jane. “Jane, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“Act like a dolphin until the next question is fulfilled, you can ask your question first though.” 

Jane grins wolfishly and turns to Christine. “Christy, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.”

“I dare you to belly dance until the next question is fulfilled.” Jane tells her and then immediately flops onto the floor and starts making her high pitched attempt at dolphin noises. 

Christy smiles a bit and begins tucking her shirt up into her bra. “Fabian, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to drop 2 ice cubes down your pants.” And with that Jane sits back up and Christine throws her arms up in the air and rolls her exposed belly as best as she can manage. 

Fabian sighs and mumbles “I should’ve seen this coming.” While waiting for the room to supply him with the 2 ice cubes he now needs. “Penelope, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“If you had to date anyone in this room, who would it be?” With that, he dumps the ice cubes down his pants and squeezes his eyes shut as he fights to avoid screaming, and Christine untucks her shirt and sits back down. 

Penelope rolls her eyes and takes a scan of the room. “I dunno. Either Remus or Wisteria I guess, but Wisteria’s got Fabina, so I guess Remus.” 

Wisteria doesn’t miss the slight blush that comes to Penelope’s cheeks and makes a mental note to talk to her about it later. 

“Mary,” Penelope continues. “Truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What are you most self-conscious about?” 

Mary looks taken aback and sit in silence for a moment before saying, “Well, my voice is kinda annoying.” 

“Everyone finds their own voice annoying Mary.” Lily assures her. “Besides, there are plenty of students  _ and _ teachers here who have way more obnoxious voices than yours.” 

Mary smiles at her. “Peter, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” “If you had to make out with someone in this room, who would it be?” 

Peter turns as red as his house colors and buries his head in his arms. “Why is everything about kissing with you people?” 

“Because we’re horny teenagers who never get any action.” Penelope says bluntly. 

“Speak for yourself.” Marlene and Sirius reply at the same time and 

Peter groans before mumbling something. “What was that old buddy old pal?” James asks. “Was that a name I heard? Could you repeat it a little louder for me?” 

Without taking his head out of his arms Peter says, “Wisteria.” 

The girl in question freezes and out of the corner of her eye she sees Fabian’s hand twitch possively toward her own sitting right next to it, but he doesn't grab it.  _ Why doesn’t he grab my hand? _ Wisteria frowns slightly and Peter mumbles an apology to both her and Fabian before deflated asking 

“Remus, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“Take a shower with your clothes on, shoes and everything.” Remus looks annoyed, but without another word he gets up and waits for the room to supply him with a shower. When it does he hops in, turns the water on, waits until he is thoroughly soaked and then rejoins the group in all his soppy wetness. 

“This good enough for you?” He asks as Peter chuckles and nods his head. “Alice, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What’s your worst habit?” 

“I bite my nails.” 

“That it?  _ Boring! _ ” Marlene exclaims. 

“Well what did you expect Mar? That I have some weird secret addiction to BDSM without you somehow finding out despite us sharing a room?” 

“Point taken.”

Moving from looking at Marlene to look at Shay, Alice asks, “Shay, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What is your biggest turn on.” 

Shannon’s eyes grow wide and while she doesn’t blush, she does stutter for a minute before managing to ask, “What?” 

“Your biggest turn on. You know, what really gets the girls excited?” 

“Oh merlin, dont word it like that!” 

Alice laughs. “Just answer the question already.” 

“I don’t know!” 

“Okay, okay, I’ll change the question a bit. What feature do you find the most attractive on guys?” 

Shannon breaths a small “thank you” before answering. “Back muscles I guess.” 

Penelope smirks and nudges her sides, “Now that you mention it, Will does have some really nice back muscles doesn't he?” 

Now Shannon does blush and she hits Penelope’s arm. “Shut up!” 

Penelope laughs, “I’m just saying girl. You guys better be a thing before the end of this year or you don’t stand a chance, seeing as he’s graduating and stuff.” 

“I know…” Shannon mumbles. 

“Okay, I’m tired, let's get on with this game already so that I can get my beauty sleep.” Marlene says. 

“Oh, uh, right. Lily, truth or dare?” Shannon asks.

“Truth.” 

“How many kids do you want someday, and what genders?” 

A soft smile comes to Lily’s face. “Two.” She answers. “One of each gender.” 

“Oh and our children will certain be wonderful, won't they Lils?” James says loudly, getting a deadly glare from Lily. 

“Keep talking to me like that and you just might lose the ability to someday have kids of your own, got that Potter?” 

James swallows nervously. “Got it.”

“James, truth or dare?” Lily continues as if she hadn’t just threatened to sterilize him.

“What do you think Lily-Pad? Dare.” 

“I dare you to not talk for the rest of the night.” 

“What? That’s not fair Lily-kins, it’s my birthday!” 

“I am well aware of what day it is, my dare stands. Besides, it’s way past curfew, so you only have like half an hour until tomorrow. Now, if you all don’t mind, I’m gonna go ahead and cut this party short and go to bed. Good luck sneaking back everyone.” She leaves the room and is quickly followed out by everyone else (after they help Gideon get out his outfit and makeup), all of them sneaking off the their own dorms and praying they won't get caught.

  
  
  
  


#  Chapter Twenty-Nine

Wisteria missed breakfast. Again. She’d been doing that a lot lately, staying up late, partly because of her homework and partly because of her insomnia. So she’s made a habit of stopping by the kitchen to grab food before running off to whichever class she has first, which today was Potions. She got down there, opened the door, and was halfway through telling Deedee what she wanted to eat when she noticed the other human in the room.

“Michael.” She whispers. She stare unabashed at him, taking in the sight of him after not seeing him for a little over a year. His hair was longer, the dark circles under his eyes more prominent, but his eyes were still that gorgeous, vibrant color they always were.

He stares at her for a panicked moment before offering a small smile and whispering back. “Hi.”

Wisteria wants nothing more than to jump for joy at him actually talking to her, but she knows that it might scare him off so instead she smiles at him. “It's been awhile. How are you?”

“Im fine. And you?”

“Wonderful.” I trust you’re eating well? Taking care of yourself and all?”

He smiles in a way that she could only describe as sad. “Yeah, Deedee makes sure to drop food off in my room if I lose track of time and forget to come down here.”

“Well I’m glad you remembered today.”

He looks conflicted for a moment before he nods and walks out without another word. Wisteria frowns and Deedee approaches her carefully. 

“Wisty? Are you okay?”

This shakes Wisteria out of her thoughts and gets her smile. “Of course Deedee, I’m sorry. I’ll have what I normally get. And thank you, for looking after him.”

Deedee beams back up at her and nods vigorously.

 

A few hours later Wisteria is sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts with Penelope, listening to Professor Renshaw’s lecture on Boggarts. Halfway through the class Penelope nudges her and they make eye contact. Penelope gives her a look wondering what’s wrong and Wisteria responds with a look Penelope has seen many times and understands as simply meaning ongoing friend drama reappearing. 

“If you two could please stop making eyes at one another and pay attention in my class, that would be much appreciated.” Professor Renshaw’s voice suddenly snapped the two out of their silent conversation and had Wisteria blushing at being caught, but as always her idiotic friends were there to take the attention off of her. 

“Oh we greatly apologize Windy,” Sirius speaks up loudly, “But you see, Remus and I have recently discovered out deep love for one another and cannot keep our eyes off of each other. I’m afraid that there’s nothing that can be done about the matter.” Remus rolls his eyes at the comment, but chuckles to himself, his amusement getting the better of him.

“I believe you are quite mistaken Siri,” This times it’s Gideon who speaks up, “You see, Windy was actually referring to Fabs and I, see we’ve discovered the secret to twin telepathy, but seeing as we haven’t gotten enough practice with it yet, we must maintain intense eye contact for it to work properly.”

“Well Mr. Black I am sure that you’re most recent romantic adventure is heartbroken at the news, and congratulations Prewetts at inventing twin telepathy, but unfortunately for you I do know something that can be done about both matters. It’s called detention, tonight directly after dinner.”

“Consider it a date.” Sirius responds with a cheeky wink.

At this Remus sighs, “Professor Renshaw I am terribly sorry to have to ask this of you, but do you think you could push their detentions back to tomorrow night? You see, Peter’s birthday is today and we were hoping to get together later to celebrate.”

Professor Renshaw narrows her eyes at the three guilty boys and then gives a slightly softer look to Remus and Peter before giving a small sigh. “Very well then. Tomorrow morning, I expect you three here before the sun rises. You can help me get ready for tomorrow’s lesson.”

“Professor, tomorrow is Saturday. We don’t have any lessons.” Jane points out.

“Well if my lesson had not been interrupted I may have gotten to that sooner. As you all know by now, this unit is on Boggarts. Well, an ex-boyfriend of mine happens to own a Boggart that he captured a while ago and he’s willing to lend it to me for educational purposes. The lesson is completely voluntary, but if you wish to try your luck against a Boggart, you are welcome to. That lesson will be tomorrow between lunch and dinner.”

By the end of the day the whole of third year was buzzing about the possibility of facing their worst fears. As usual, Wisteria was up in her room, working on homework and talking through the logistics of actually showing up tomorrow. 

“There’s no way I’m going tomorrow.” Shannon declares. “I mean, I would literally be facing my worst fear… I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that.” 

“Well I’m going.” Penelope says with a nonchalant shrug. “It’ll be interesting. Besides, I would never hear the end of it from my aunt if I didn’t show.”

“I don’t think that I’ll go. I’m having a pretty good year and I don’t need impending knowledge of my worst fear messing that up for me.” Jane says.

“I’m still on the fence about it.” Christine tells them.

“Same. I’m just gonna decide tomorrow.” Wisteria decides. 

“Are you going to Peter’s party later?” Shannon asks. 

“No. I still have some homework I need to do.”

Penelope rolls her eyes. “Come on girl. We all know you’re up all night anyway. Just go to the party and stay up all night as usual, except doing homework instead of being restless in bed.”

Wisteria chews on her lip as she considers it for a moment.  _ If I put this off I could be up for hours and lose my motivation to write these essay’s. I’m only halfway through potions and I still have Care of Magical Creatures left, but those subjects aren’t necessarily difficult, I already did the challenging homework. But I still need to read back over my Transfigurations essay. _

“Well what about you guys?” She finally says, deciding to avoid giving a definite answer for as long as she can. “Are you all going?”

“We weren’t invited.” Jane says with a shrug. “You’re the one who’s friends with the Marauders, the rest of us are just friends by association.”

“I’m not  _ that  _ close to them.” Her friends give her identical looks to show that they don’t believe her. “Okay, so I study with them some, but that’s all. Besides, they all prefer Lily over me, just like most of the school.”

“Okay, nope.” Penelope says standing up. “I am not letting you wallow in a pool of self pity, stress, and insomnia all night. We are going to that party.”

“Pen! You weren’t even invited.” 

“Then we’ll tell them I’m your date or something. Come on. Let’s go.” She stoops down and grabs Wisteria’s arms, pulling hard to get the red head to stand up.

“Fabian will be there remember? They’ll know it’s a load of bull.”

“Then we’ll figure out some other excuse on the way. Come on.”

Wisteria glances back at her pile of homework and then looks at Penelope apologetically before plopping back down on the floor. Penelope groans and reaches down to drag her up again, but Wisteria is staying put. 

“Wist!” Penelope complains.

“I’m not like you Pen! I’m not naturally a genius, I need to work on these before I lose all ability to focus for the night.” Penelope gives her an uncaring stare for a moment before, once again, moving to attempt to lift Wisteria from the floor. “If I go to the lesson tomorrow can I stay here?”

Penelope glares at her for a moment before caving. “Fine.”

Wisteria throws her a victorious smile before clambering back onto her bed with her homework. “You know,” Penelope mumbles. “With how hard you fought to not go, I would almost think that you’re avoiding someone.”

“Well what about you? Little miss “I hate people” jumped at the opportunity to go to the party, it’s almost as if you’re hoping to see someone there.”

Penelope laughs humorlessly. “And who would that be?”

“Remus.”

Penelope stutters and the other girls stare wide eyed, jaws dropped.

“You’re telling us that Pen has a crush on Lupin?” Christy asked.

“That is so not true.” Penelope says, having recovered from the initial shock.

“Oh it so is.” Wisteria insists. “Dont think for a minute that I didn’t see you blushing at James’ party when you said you’d date him.”

Penelope glares at her, chewing the inside of her cheek for a moment before saying, “Well at least I haven’t been pining over the same guy for nearly 2 years without making a move on him.” She pointed looks at Shannon who puffs her chest, lifts her chin high and smiles victoriously.

“That, dear friend, is where you are dead wrong. Will asked me on a date to Hogsmeade next weekend.”

“What?” All of her friends yell in unison. “When did this happen? Why didn’t we hear about it sooner?”

Shannon laughs. “We were in the library working on our Muggle Studies homework together. It was just before dinner and I was planning on telling you guys once we got up here.”

“You’re actually going on a date with Will! That’s amazing!” Jane yells, throwing herself at Shannon and hugging her tight. The girls spend the rest of the night talking about her upcoming date. 

 

Wisteria doesnt wake up until after lunch, and even then she really only wakes up because Penelope was there to shake her awake.

“Wist!” Penelope yells in her face. “You’ve gotta get up, the lesson is starting soon!”

Wisteria reluctantly opens her eyes and squints at Penelope. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Well no shit, you slept in way too long. What time did you fall asleep anyway?” She asks, throwing clothes at her.

Wisteria yawns and rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she thinks. “I dunno. The sky was turning kinda blue by the time I was tired enough to sleep so… Whatever time the sun rises?”

Penelope stops what she’s doing to stare at Wisteria. “You’re telling me that you stayed up until 6:30?”

Wisteria shrugs. “I guess.”

“Well it’s no wonder you look like shit then. Anyway, you’re getting no pity from me. Get your ass out of bed, into clothes, and to my aunts room!” 

 

A few minutes later the two rush into the classroom, the last ones there, but still technically ontime. Christine was already there waiting on them. 

“Where have you two been? I started to worry when I realized that I had gotten here before Pen.” 

Penelope points an accusing finger at Wisteria. “Ask… her.” She says between catching her breath. 

“Another late night?” Christine asks and gets a nod from Wisteria. “How late?”

“6:30”

Christine whistles. “Damn. Thats rough.”

“You’re telling me.”

Professor Renshaw walks into the room and everyone goes silent. “Alright, I need all of you to form a line, you’ll each face your boggart one at a time, otherwise he gets confused. Now chop chop, single file line, starting here.”

Wisteria feels her stomach drop at the idea of facing a boggart.  _ What will my boggart be? Roaches? Geese? Killer fish? Does it have to be a specific animal or whatever or can it be a concept? What if my worst fear is failure? What does it do then? _

Despite being halfway down the line, Wisteria finds herself moving forward at much too quick a pace for her liking. The goofy things that pop up after the spell has been cast help to unravel some of the fear in her stomach, but definitely not all of it. When it’s Penelope’s turn Wisteria has to turn away and close her eyes, she can’t bring herself to look at other peoples fears anymore, it just makes her more nervous at facing her own.

“You’ll be fine.” She hears Fabian’s voice say. She opens her eyes to find him standing there, in the line behind her. 

“But what if I’m not?”

“Then Ms. Renshaw is right there, and I am right here.” He slightly raises his hand, as if he wants to touch her or hold her, but then he hesitates and puts it back down. While disappointed he didn’t give her a reassuring hug or shoulder squeeze or anything, Wisteria still smiles up at him, thankful for his presence.

Then it’s Wisteria’s turn and she turns around reluctantly. The smile drops from her face immediately as the Boggart in front of her takes the form of Lily, a cold look in her green eyes and a sneer on her lips.

“You really thought that you mattered?” Lily says shortly before shifting to become Penelope.

She laughs humorlessly, her face looking at Wisteria with contempt. “What gave you the impression that we actually cared about you?” Then she changes into Jane.

“Why would we want to be friends with you?” Jane bites and quickly becomes Shannon.

“You’re useless.” Shannon shifts into Christine.

“Replaceable.” Christine utters that one word with such malice that Wisteria can barely even see her become Fabian through her tears.

“I hate you.” That one, simple sentence breaks her.

Her bottom lip trembles as she raises her wand weakly and feebly mumbles, “R-ridikulus” It doesn’t work.

“I only dated you as a joke.” Fabian says cruelly. “You don’t matter to me, you don’t matter to anyone. You’re nobody, barely even worth a second glance, you filthy mudblood.”

Wisteria can barely even stand anymore she’s shaking so bad, but then there’s someone behind her, a warm hand on her shoulder, a nose pressed into her temple, hot breath on her ear, and Fabians voice again, this time much gentler and much closer. 

“It’s not true Wist, not at all. You do matter, more than you could ever know. You matter to your family, to your friends… and you matter to me. You can do this, I believe in you, and if you can’t, then I’m right here to help. I promise.”

Wisteria shivers at his closeness, he’s barely touched her at all since they started dating and now he’s so close to her that she can feel the heat of his body. 

“Ridikulus.” She says with more confidence and suddenly the Fabian in front of her is okay and laughing his head off at something. She turns around and wraps the real Fabian in a tight hug.

“Thank you.” She whispers against his shoulder.

He chuckles and she lets go, beginning to walk away. “You think my laugh is funny?” He calls after her. 

She turns and gives him a huge smile. “I think contagious is a better word.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


#  Chapter Thirty

“It was going perfectly fine until I told him I was happy to see him!” Wisteria rants as she pases the room. Penelope is sat on her bed, looking over her homework and nodding along.

“Are you sure you didn’t say anything that might have upset him?”

“Why would me saying that I was happy to see him have upset him! Isn’t it typically a good thing when someone wants to see you!”

“You know that it’s a special case with Michael.”

Wisteria runs her hands through her hair and tugs on the ends of it. “I wish I could just ask Will about him!”

“Why can’t you? And stop pulling on your hair like that or you’ll go bald.”

“I can’t because he doesn’t talk to Will either, so he probably won’t know much more than me, and even if he did, I can’t crash his and Shay’s date. I would never forgive myself.”

“Speaking of, why aren’t you out with Fabian right now?” 

“We have plans for lunch at 1.

“Its 12:50 Wist.”

Wisteria’s eyes widen. “It is?” She scrambles to the bathroom to glance at herself in the mirror and then looks back at Penelope.

“Thanks Pen. And sorry for making you listen to me rant.”

Penelope shrugs. “It’s nothing at all for my best friend. Besides, it doesn’t get annoying until week 2 of the same rant.”

Wisteria smiles at her. “You should see if you can’t hang out with Remus today. Maybe even go on a date.” Penelope looks horrified at the idea and Wisteria laughs at her. “Lily and I are studying after Fabian and I get back, so I wont be back until late.”

“It’s not like you usually stay in bed anyway, or sleep at all for that matter. Now go, you don’t want to be late for your date, do you?”

Flashing Penelope one last grin, Wisteria rushes out of the room and down to the tree by the Black Lake that she and Fabian had agreed to meet at.

 

Fabian has been standing under the tree for a few minutes now waiting for Wisteria and the irrational part of his brain has started to take over.  _ She’s lost interest and doesn’t want to be with you anymore. You were too forward last weekend. She didn’t like how close you got while she was facing that boggart. _

“Hey, sorry I’m running a little late, I wanted to get out my frustrations by ranting to Pen before meeting up with you so I wasn’t as snarky.” Wisteria’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts and he smiles at her.

“It’s no problem at all. What was bothering you?”

She waves her hand dismissively. “I ran into Michael is all.”

Fabian frowns. “Oh.”

“Fabs, it’s fine, really. I just tried to talk to him and he froze up and left.”

“I know, I just… Nevermind.”

Wisteria looks at him concerned. “Fabs, if there’s something bothering you, we need to talk about it. Otherwise we’ll never get anywhere in life.”

Fabian smiles at her and hesitantly takes her han to begin leading hr into Hogsmeade, “Then it’s a good thing nothing is bothering me. Now come on, let’s just enjoy our date.”

She smiles softly at him and together they make their way to Hogsmeade hand in hand. 

The date goes just as smoothly as all the others before it, but this time they were holding hands nearly the entire time and both of them seemed to be in a better mood because of it. When they are done they make their way back to the castle and to the Gryffindor common room so that Wisteria can meet up with Lily. Fabian lets her into the common room and kisses her cheek before heading up to his room and leaving Wisteria smiling dumbly in the Gryffindor common room.

 

After a few minutes of waiting, Wisteria finally sees Lily walking in through the Fat Lady.

“Wisty! Wonderful, you’re already here. Remus is helping a few first years in the Library right now, so we should have a while with the rest of the Marauders and once we’re done with them we can talk to Madame Pomfrey.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go.” 

The twins make their way to the Marauders door and knock. The door opens rather quickly to reveal Peter. “Oh. Hello girls. Are you here to talk about the… Er... “

“Yeah. We’re here to talk about all of your…” Lily trails off and helpful voice from inside the room speaks up.

“I think we should call it our ‘furry little problem’!”

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “Wonderful James, that’s not at all conspicuous.”

“Well, it wont be if we all come up with a really good story behind it.” 

“May we come in Peter?” Lily asks, ignoring James, as usual.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry.” The pudgy boy steps aside to let the girls into the room.

“So ladies, what can we do for you?” Sirius asks, lounging lazily on his bed.

“We just wanted to talk about the plan.” Wisteria says. “You guys have been just as talkative as usual so we assumed you haven’t done anything yet unless you were using sticking charms, but those can get tricky, so…”

“We had talked for a bit and decided we’d do it over the summer.” James says. “I live on a big enough property so that my parents will have no idea.”

“My parents are trusting me home alone all summer while they visit my aunt in America.” Peter says.

“And my parents leave me pretty much completely alone, so they should have no idea.” Sirius tells them.

The girls nod. “That’s what we figured, which brings us to our second topic of conversation.” Lily says. “Wisty and I know the most out of all five of us on how this works and we would feel much more comfortable if we were able to check in on the three of you periodically to help if necessary, so we need to figure out ways to do that over the summer.”

“You could use Floo Powder.” Peter suggests.

James beams at him. “Brilliant Pete! We’ll simply tell you where we live and you can just Floo there.”

The girls share a look. “We don’t have any Floo Powder…” Wisteria tells them.

James waves a dismissive hand. “No problem, you can steal some of mine until you get your own.” He reaches to the other side of his bed and grabs a piece of parchment. “Here, we’ll write our addresses on this parchment so that you guys have them for the summer.” He jots down his address and passes the parchment to Peter who does the same and passes it to Sirius who stares at the paper and hesitates. 

“What’s the matter Siri?” James asks.

“I… er… My uh… My mom is a little stingy about… er… unwanted guests… She’s not the kindest person in the world to… well…”

“Muggleborns.” Wisteria finishes. He glances up at her, a pained look in his grey eyes. 

“Yeah. But, there is a coffee shop that I love that’s run by a Squib nearby and it has a fireplace. I’ll write a letter to her and ask if we can use it. It shouldn’t be a problem so long as we don’t use up her Floo Powder, she and I are good friends.”

“Okay. Tells us when you get a reply and for now just write that address down on the parchment.” Lily tells him.

Sirius nods and writes the address down before handing it to the girls. 

Suddenly the door opens behind them and the entire room turns to stare wide eyed at Remus who freezes at the number of eyes on him.

“Ummm… What’s going on?” He asks carefully. 

Everyone in the room seems to freeze, not knowing what to say and looking panicked, but Sirius recovers quickly. “Hey Rem. The girls just came in to chat a bit. Actually they were just leaving I think, right girls?”

“Er… right…” Lily says nervously. “Yeah, we were just leaving… Come on Wisty…” She grabs her sister’s arm and begins to pull her out of the room, but Wisteria pulls her arm stubbornly out of Lily’s grip.

“No. He deserves to know, I see no reason why this should be kept secret from him.”

The entire room has now turned to stare at her, but she gives Sirius a pointed look before turning to face Remus directly.

“Wisty…” Sirius says in a deliberately warning tone of voice, playing along with Wisteria’s plan.

“Why shouldn’t he know? We’ve already established it changes nothing.”

“Wisty! You can’t just-”

“He should know!” Wisteria cuts off James. “He should know that we know.”

James and Lily finally catch onto her plan and give identical defeated sighs.

“Fine.” Lily says. “Then tell him.”

Wisteria faces Remus again, but before she can say anything he’s sunken down on his bed. “You figured it out.” He says in a small voice.

The twins sit on either side of him on his bed and wrap their arms around him. “Remus…” Wisteria says. “This doesn’t change anything. You are still you, and will always be you. It doesn’t matter that you have another side to you, everyone has other, ugly sides.”

“It doesn’t matter that you’re a werewolf Rem, because you will always be so much more than just a werewolf and anyone who cares about you will be able to see that. You are first and foremost our friend and that will never change.” Lily promises him.

Remus squeezes his eyes shut and bites down hard on his lip and Wisteria puts her hand gently on the side of his face, moving his head to face hers until their foreheads were resting up against one another and he was looking her in the eye. “You are Remus John Lupin, a Wizard, a student at the best Wizarding school in the world, a member of the brave house of Gryffindor, and most importantly a member of the Marauders. You are  _ not  _ a monster, and the term werewolf does not and never will define you. Everyone in this room love you Remus, and that will never change.” Wisteria sits up, away from Remus and stands.

Lily gives him one last squeeze and stands up as well. “In all seriousness though, we really do have to leave.”

“Thank you.” Remus whispers to them.

The girls smile at him and turn to leave only to have Sirius beat them to the door. “I’ll walk you girls out, I have a date tonight that I simply cannot miss.”

Remus gives him a skeptical look. “A date? This late at night?”

“Oh my dear Rem, I do indeed have a date. And she’s waiting for me in the Room of Requirements so that she can fulfill my requirements.” Sirius sends a wink to Remus and the whole room makes disgusted noises. 

“None of us needed to know that Sirius!” Peter complained.

Sirius laughs. “Well then next time, don’t doubt me. Now then girls shall we be on our way?”

The three make their way out of the room and down to the Fat Lady, once they are all outside Gryffindor Tower, Sirius pulls them both into a hug. “Thank you girls, for everything you are doing for Remus. It means the world to all of us, especially him.”

The girls smile and hug him back. “It’s nothing really. Now go on to your date. And don’t forget to write that letter to the Squib lady!”

“Of course. See you girls later.”

After watching him saunter off down the hall the girls make go to the infirmary to talk to Madame Pomfrey. Upon entering, the healer gives the girls a strange look.

“Evans? Today isn’t one of our sessions, what is it?”

“We felt it was time to come clean about why we were asking for sessions to begin with.” Lily confesses.

“Oh really? And why is that?”

“Because we know that our friend Remus is a Werewolf and want to be able to help him when he gets injured during the full moons.” Wisteria says bluntly. 

Madame Pomfrey sits in stunned silence for a moment, staring at the girls. Then finally she says, “I appreciate your concern for Mr. Lupin, but I assure you both that I can handle his injuries myself.”

“We know that you are a very capable woman Madame, but we feel that perhaps Remus would feel better about the situation if he could be surrounded by friends for as much of it as possible and since, of course, we can’t be with him while he’s transformed we thought the next best thing would be for us to be there helping him heal when he wakes up.” Lily explains.

Madame Pomfrey studies the girls for some time before saying, “I will need to up your lessons to three times a week, on top of regular volunteer hours helping me with any patients I may have at the time and I expect you both to read up on any materials I give you is that understood?”

“Yes Madame.” Both girls respond without hesitation. 

“I also hope you understand that I will be with you the entire time, at no moment am I going to leave you alone with Mr. Lupin until I deem you both capable. It will be no easy task, you will both essentially be taking on an entire course.”

“We understand. Thank you.” The twins respond.

After another few seconds of silence Madame Pomfrey simply nods. “Very well then. Your lessons start tomorrow, they will be every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday at the normal times and if any of those dont work then we will work something out. I will tell you which books you are to read over summer holiday and I expect them all to be read by your return in September where we will resume your lessons based around whichever classes you are both taking next year. You may leave.”


	25. Year 3 - Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And once again I am skipping a chapter. Sorry. This chapter would have been Christmas holiday where Wisteria would have gone to Molly and Arthur's house with Fabian and Gideon. While she's doing that Lily is back at the school researching everything she can find about werewolves, trying to prove or disprove their theory on Remus. She winds up deciding it's most likely true and then moves on to researching ways to possibly help him. Now back to the story.

Wisteria meets Lily in an empty classroom a week or so after break ends.

“Okay, lets talk our way through this first, and then we’ll go to them.” Lily says. The sisters sit in the classroom for a little over an hour talking each other through the plan and making sure they have all their facts right. When they feel confident in the plan, they make their way to Gryffindor tower.

Lily lets her sister in and together they climb the flight of stairs leading up to the boys rooms and search the dorms until they find the one with the Marauders names on it. The girls glance at each other and then Lily reaches up and knocks on the door. A few moments later the door opens to reveal James.

His eyes widen and a small smile comes to his face as he looks at Lily. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Is Remus here?” Lily asks, somewhat ignoring his question.

James’ face falls a little before he answers. “No. Why?”

“Perfect. Are the rest of you in there?”

“Yes. What’s going on?”

“Can we come in? We need to talk to you.”

James gives them a weird look. “Yeah sure, just give me a minute.” He closes the door and it opens about a minute later as he lets them into the room. “So what is this about?”

The girls take a deep breath. They had already decided who would say what, so they didn’t even need to look at each other before starting.

“We have a question for you and we expect an honest answer. Keep in mind we are your friends and we would never do anything that would hurt you, that goes for Remus too. There is a reason we don’t want him here, but that’s because we have his well being in mind and that will come into play in a minute, but for now we just want a completely honest answer to our question.” Lily starts, staring right at James.

“What is it?” He asks.

Wisteria is the one to answer. “Is Remus a werewolf?”

The silence after the question is asked is nearly painful, but the answer was evident on the boys faces. They all looked horrified and the girls knew they were right, but still waited for an answer. When no one offered one, the girls moved on anyway.

“He’s our friend. We care about him and want to help.” Wisteria tells them.

“Which is why, we’ve spent a while looking up every possible thing we could find about werewolves.” Lily says. “What we found is that there are many wizards who are researching a possible potion that could help, but so far on one has managed to get it right. Other than that there weren’t any mentions of anyway to help, but-“

“Werewolves don’t go after animals.” Wisteria takes over. “So if someone is an animagus and just uses that form then all should be good. So if you become animagi, then you can stay with him all night and not be in nearly as much danger.”

Then Lily continues, “The only problems are that Remus probably wouldn’t want you to do it, so we need to keep it from him, and you’re supposed to register as an animagus, but if you do that then you will be questioned on why you are doing it and that will bring up uncomfortable questions.”

“So, the obvious thing to do would be to keep it secret. But the process is long and difficult so we need to know that you are in 100%.” Wisteria finishes that part of their little script. When none of them say anything still she makes eye contact with each of them in turn. “Could one of you please say something because you’re honestly freaking me out.”

Sirius is the first one to speak. “You figured it out that last time we ran into after curfew didn’t you?”

Wisteria gulped. “Yeah. You’re a pretty good liar Sirius, but so am I. I know the tricks. Plus you’re roommates aren’t the best liars. They were mostly the ones who gave it away.”

Sirius chuckles a little and leans his head against a wall. “Alright. So you have this plan. We’re gonna become animagi, and we’re gonna help Remus. Can you tell us more?”

“We want to know that you guys are up for it first.” Lily says.

“I’m in. I’ll help him no matter what it takes.” Sirius says without a moment’s hesitation.

“Me too.” James says a second after.

Everyone in the room looks expectantly at Peter. “I want to, but… I-I don’t know if I can. That’s really advanced stuff and its supposed to be really hard. What happens if I mess up somewhere along the way?”

“You won’t. I swear it.” Wisteria says, putting her hands on his shoulders. “We’ll all be right here with you the whole time. We’ll make sure that nothing goes wrong.”

He still looks afraid, but he bites his lip, puts on a brave face, and nods. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Okay,” Wisteria smiles at him and steps back to move onto the next part of their plan and address all three of the boys. “There are three steps to becoming an animagus. Step one and two involve these.” She says as she hands them each a bag of leaves “These are Mandrake leaves. For one month you have to keep one of these in your mouth at all times.

“At the end of each day you need to take it out and follow this recipe,” She says as she gives them each a parchment and bag of ingredients, “And create the potion using the Mandrake leaf you had in your mouth all day. Now, hold out your hands.”  They do as they are told and one by one she places a temporary charm on their wrists so that they read ‘ _ Amato Animo Animato Animagus _ ’.

“After drinking the potion each day you need to say that incantation. You must perform every step perfectly or this could possibly end in disaster for any one of you. Lily and I will be there to help, but it’s still dangerous, especially since we don’t want Remus to know. Which brings me to another point. We don’t want you guys accidentally spitting up Mandrake leaves in the middle of a conversation, which would bring up many questions we don’t want to answer. Lily and I recommend telling Remus that you are all taking a vow of silence to protest something. If you guys have any questions, just ask Lily or I. Understand?”

The boys nod and James looks up from the bag in his hands. “Thank you. This means a lot.”

Lily smiles at him. “We just hope it works and does some good. You are smart boys despite what everyone thinks. I hope you can pull this off.”

“So do I.” Sirius says.

        On her way back to the common room, Wisteria turns down a hall to find Lucius and Narcissa talking with their backs to her and Regulus and Severus standing in front of them, now staring right at her. Wisteria’s breath catches in her throat and her mind struggles to figure out what to do. Before she can come up with something Regulus clenches his jaw and looks at the Slytherin’s in front of him.

       “Let’s go get some food. I’m starving.” He says to them.

       "Yeah, so am I." Severus agrees.

       “I thought you didn’t want to go to the Great Hall tonight?” The Slytherin girl says.

       “Well my hunger won out. I need food, so lets go.”

       Lucius shrugs. “Alright, whatever.”

       Regulus glances at Wisteria one more time before the three of them walk off down the hallway in the opposite direction. Wisteria’s heart beat returns to normal and she stands for a minute trying to figure out why he would have helped her. It makes sense for Severus to help, but Regulus? Before she can come to a conclusion, the Prewett twins find her.

       “Wisty?” Fabian asks. “What are you doing?”

       “Huh? Nothing. How are you guys doing?”

       “We’re alright. Just heading to lunch. Wanna join us?”

       “Sure. Let’s go.”


	26. Year 3 - Part 5

Fabian was sitting in Charms in between his brother and James when he was invited to James’ birthday party. He accepted and then look up at Wisteria who was sitting on the other side of the room in between Jane and Penelope.

_Have you been invited to James’ birthday party yet?_ He jots down on the desk in front of him. They’ve put the charm on their desks in all the classes they have together now.

_Of course I have._ She responds a few moments later. _The Marauders asked Lily and I this morning. I think James figured she was less likely to say no if I was with her when he asked._

_Did she say no?_

_ Of course not. And even if she had, I would drag her along anyway. I did have to convince her out of inviting Severus though._

    _ She wanted to invite that snake?_

Wisteria looks up to give him a small glare from across the room. _Keep in mind that ‘that snake’ is my friend too. And yes, she wanted to invite him. I know that it only would have ended in a fight, so I shut that idea down quick. The rest of the girls are coming though, Lily’s friends and mine._

Fabian takes a moment to lean over to James and whisper, “What are we gonna do at the party anyway?” 

“I dunno, play Truth or Dare or Spin the Bottle or some other party game probably.” 

Two nights later on the night of the party the lot of them were sitting in a circle in the Room of Requirements trying to figure out a game to play. 

“We could play Spin the Bottle.” Sirius suggest.  

“Of course that’d be your request.” Penelope says rolling her eyes.

“What can I say.” Sirius says with an unashamed shrug accompanied by his signature smirk. “I’m always in the mood to kiss pretty girls and tonight they outnumber the guys enough to where I like my chances.” 

Jane and Emmeline scrunch up their noses at that while Marlene glances at Sirius with renewed interest. “You mean that we wouldn’t play it where only guys could kiss girls and vice versa?” Jane asks. 

“Why would we?” Sirius responds. “It’s no fun unless you run the risk of having to platonically kiss your best mate. Not that I wouldn’t mind kissing any of the Marauders.” He winks at each of them in turn. Emmeline, looking uncomfortable, suggests that they find something else to play instead. 

“What about Never Have I Ever?” Marlene suggests. 

“No offense Mar,” Lily says, “But I’m pretty sure that the only people in our group to have done anything remotely interesting enough to make that game fun are you and Sirius.” 

Marlene shrugs. “I suppose that’s true.” 

“Okay then, what else do we have?” Christine asks. 

Fabian smirks “How about Truth or Dare?” 

“Oh come on Fabs.” Alice says. “That game’s only fun when you’re drunk.” 

“Actually I like the sound of playing that.” Remus says. “I’m sure we can keep it interesting while sober, seeing as we’re underage.” 

A massive smile spreads across James’ face. “Alright then, lets play. I’ll start, it is my birthday after all. So, Sirius, Truth or Dare?” 

“Dare.” Sirius responds, no hesitation. 

“You said you wouldn’t mind kissing one of the Marauders, prove it. I dare you to kiss one of us.” 

Sirius mentally weighs his options for a moment before scooting closer to Peter. “Alright then, come on Peter buddy, pucker up.” 

Peter’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm as he squeals loudly, “WHAT!” 

“You heard my dare, I’ve gotta kiss one of you! James has already sworn himself to Lily, so he’s off limits,” Lily scoffs at that. “And I’m already so attracted to Remus that I might actually get a boner if I kiss him.” All the girls but Marlene react to that with wide eyes and screeches of protest, but Sirius continues, undeterred. “So that leaves you. It’ll be over quick, I promise.” 

Peter simply sits there shell shocked with his jaw hanging open, so Sirius rolls his eyes, reaches over, grabs his jaw to close his mouth and gives him a quick peck on the lips. This act leaves Peter sputtering and bright in the face, Sirius smirking, and everyone else either cracking up or looking uncomfortable. 

Sirius, not so much as blushing, immediately moves on. “Gideon, truth or dare?” 

Gideon thinks for a moment and then says wit a determined look in his eye, “Dare.” 

“Alright, I dare you to…” He pauses, considering the endless options before finally deciding on one. “Dress up in drag for the rest of the game.” 

Gideon narrows his eyes. “Where am I even going to find the stuff needed to dress in drag?” 

“We’re in the Room of Requirement aren’t we? Just think about need a dress, heels, makeup, a wig, whatever. I’ll even be nice and say the girls can help you with your makeup.” 

Gideon glares slightly and chews at his bottom lip before shrugging and accepting his fate. “Alright, fine. I’ll dress in drag, just know that my vengeance will be coming. Watch your back Black.” 

Sirius smirks. “I look forward to it Prewett.” 

Thirty minutes of random chatter and arguing over what dress, heels, and makeup to put Gideon in, he’s finally dressed in full drag and everyone sits back down in their original circle, chuckling over Gideon who makes quick work of moving on with the game.

“Wisty, truth or dare?” Wisteria pretends to think about it, but she learned her lesson a long time ago to never say dare in this game. 

“Truth.” She says finally, ignoring the slight ping in her chest as Christine, Marlene, and Alice all roll their eyes with mumbles of ‘lame’ under their breath. 

Gideon considers this for a moment and then smirks. “What was your first kiss like?” 

“Oh come on Gideon. That’s so personal.” Lily complains 

“Lily, it’s truth or dare. The truth’s are supposed to be personal. Besides, I don’t mind talking about it at all.” Wisteria says.

Lily’s eyes widen. “What? But you never even told  _ me  _ about your first kiss.” 

“You never asked. Anyway, it wasn’t really anything special. I’m sure I’ve mentioned my ex before, right? John?” The others nod. “It was after school, we were at the arcade and he kissed me. Honestly the most noteworthy part of the whole experience was the fact that one of his fangirls saw it and the entire school was buzzing about it the next day. I got some pretty nasty looks until he kissed me again, this time in front of everyone, and told them all to shut up. Needless to say, they listened to him. It’d be like Sirius telling his fangirls to shut up about something, they’d do it.” 

“There you go again, comparing me to your ex. Got a secret thing for me Wisty?” Sirius asks, winking.

“In case you haven’t heard, I’m dating Fabian.”

“I know, but he could always be a cover up.” 

Out of the corner of her eye Wisty sees a look of self doubt and panic sweep over Fabian’s face and gets angry at Sirius for taking it too far. “Sorry to burst your egocentric bubble Sirius, but that’s not how I roll. I like Fabian, I’m dating Fabian, end of story.” 

Sirius seems to get the message because he shoots Fabian and apologetic look and puts his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, sorry. I was just joking around.” 

Satisfied with his apology, Wisteria continues with the game. “Sirius, truth or dare?” 

“Oh come on!” He groans loudly. “How is that fair, why is everyone picking on me! That’s practically twice in a row for me! Choose someone else!” 

“Nope, now answer the question Black, truth or dare?” 

He pouts dramatically and mumbles “Dare.” Lily rolls her eyes, already knowing what her twin in planning, since she does this every time they play this game. 

“I dare you to sneak into the kitchen and get me a pizza.” Wisteria says with a confident smile.

His eyes widen and he looks at her with some interest before chuckling. “I like the way you roll Wisty, nicely played.” And he stands up, leaving the room to carry out his dare. He returns a while later and places the pizza down next to Wisteria who smiles broadly and starts digging in. 

Sirius plops himself back down and scan the group. “Before I continue, I’m gonna say it right here, right now, once someone has already been asked, you can’t ask them again until everyone has gotten their share.” They all nod in silent agreement and he continues. “Marlene, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to kiss Peter.” 

Peter squeaks again, “No! I am not being kissed again!” 

Sirius rolls his eyes, feigning annoyance. “Fine, I suppose I’ll have to take one for the team. Marlene, I dare you to kiss me.” She smirks and him and crawls across the group until she sits in front of him and wraps her arms around his neck as his come around her waist. They kiss for a few moments before she draws away and sits back down in her normal seat. 

Penelope rolls her eyes at them and mumbles “Whores…” under her breath, earning a light smack from Wisteria. 

“Emmy,” Marlene moves on, “Truth or dare?” 

Emmeline swallows nervously, “Truth.” 

“What is the most childish thing you still do?” 

“Well… I still sleep with my baby blanket?” 

Marlene laughs good naturedly. “Yeah, that’s pretty childish.” 

Emmeline smiles and turns to Jane. “Jane, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“Act like a dolphin until the next question is fulfilled, you can ask your question first though.” 

Jane grins wolfishly and turns to Christine. “Christy, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.”

“I dare you to belly dance until the next question is fulfilled.” Jane tells her and then immediately flops onto the floor and starts making her high pitched attempt at dolphin noises. 

Christy smiles a bit and begins tucking her shirt up into her bra. “Fabian, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to drop ice cubes down your pants.” And with that Jane sits back up and Christine throws her arms up in the air and rolls her exposed belly as best as she can manage. 

Fabian sighs and mumbles “I should’ve seen this coming.” While waiting for the room to supply him with the ice cubes he now needs. “Penelope, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“If you had to date anyone in this room, who would it be?” With that, he dumps the ice cubes down his pants and squeezes his eyes shut as Christine untucks her shirt and sits back down. 

Penelope rolls her eyes and takes a scan of the room. “I dunno. Either Remus or Wisteria I guess, but Wisteria’s got Fabian, so I guess Remus.” 

Wisteria doesn’t miss the slight blush that comes to Penelope’s cheeks and makes a mental note to talk to her about it later. 

“Mary,” Penelope continues. “Truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What are you most self-conscious about?” 

Mary looks taken aback and sit in silence for a moment before saying, “Well, my voice is kinda annoying.” 

“Everyone finds their own voice annoying Mary.” Lily assures her. “Besides, there are plenty of students  _ and _ teachers here who have way more obnoxious voices than yours.” 

Mary smiles at her. “Peter, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” “If you had to make out with someone in this room, who would it be?” 

Peter turns as red as his house colors and buries his head in his arms. “Why is everything about kissing with you people?” 

“Because we’re horny teenagers who never get any action.” Penelope says bluntly. 

“Speak for yourself.” Marlene and Sirius reply at the same time and 

Peter groans before mumbling something. “What was that old buddy old pal?” James asks. “Was that a name I heard? Could you repeat it a little louder for me?” 

Without taking his head out of his arms Peter says, “Wisteria.” 

The girl in question freezes and out of the corner of her eye she sees Fabian’s hand twitch possessively toward her own sitting right next to it, but he doesn't grab it.  _ Why doesn’t he grab my hand? _ Wisteria frowns slightly and Peter mumbles an apology to both her and Fabian before deflated asking 

“Remus, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“Take a shower with your clothes on, shoes and everything.” Remus looks annoyed, but without another word he gets up and waits for the room to supply him with a shower. When it does he hops in, turns the water on, waits until he is thoroughly soaked and then rejoins the group in all his soppy wetness. 

“This good enough for you?” He asks as Peter chuckles and nods his head. “Alice, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What’s your worst habit?” 

“I bite my nails.” 

“That it?  _ Boring! _ ” Marlene exclaims. 

“Well what did you expect Mar? That I have some weird secret addiction to BDSM without you somehow finding out despite us sharing a room?” 

“Point taken.”

Moving from looking at Marlene to look at Shay, Alice asks, “Shay, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What is your biggest turn on.” 

Shannon’s eyes grow wide and while she doesn’t blush, she does stutter for a minute before managing to ask, “What?” 

“Your biggest turn on. You know, what really gets the girls excited?” 

“Oh merlin, dont word it like that!” 

Alice laughs. “Just answer the question already.” 

“I don’t know!” 

“Okay, okay, I’ll change the question a bit. What feature do you find the most attractive on guys?” 

Shannon breaths a small “thank you” before answering. “Back muscles I guess.” 

Penelope smirks and nudges her sides, “Now that you mention it, Will does have some really nice back muscles doesn't he?” 

Now Shannon does blush and she hits Penelope’s arm. “Shut up!” 

Penelope laughs, “I’m just saying girl. You guys better be a thing before the end of this year or you don’t stand a chance, seeing as he’s graduating and stuff.” 

“I know…” Shannon mumbles. 

“Okay, I’m tired, let's get on with this game already so that I can get my beauty sleep.” Marlene says. 

“Oh, uh, right. Lily, truth or dare?” Shannon asks.

“Truth.” 

“How many kids do you want someday, and what genders?” 

A soft smile comes to Lily’s face. “Two.” She answers. “One of each gender.” 

“Oh and our children will certain be wonderful, won't they Lils?” James says loudly, getting a deadly glare from Lily. 

“Keep talking to me like that and you just might lose the ability to someday have kids of your own, got that Potter?” 

James swallows nervously. “Got it.”

“James, truth or dare?” Lily continues as if she hadn’t just threatened to sterilize him.

“What do you think Lily-Pad? Dare.” 

“I dare you to not talk for the rest of the night.” 

“What? That’s not fair Lily-kins, it’s my birthday!” 

“I am well aware of what day it is, my dare stands. Besides, it’s way past curfew, so you only have like half an hour until tomorrow. Now, if you all don’t mind, I’m gonna go ahead and cut this party short and go to bed. Good luck sneaking back everyone.” She leaves the room and is quickly followed out by everyone else (after they help Gideon get out his outfit and makeup), all of them sneaking off the their own dorms and praying they won't get caught.


	27. Year 3 - Part 6

Wisteria missed breakfast. Again. She’d been doing that a lot lately, staying up late, partly because of her homework and partly because of her insomnia. So she’s made a habit of stopping by the kitchen to grab food before running off to whichever class she has first, which today was Potions. She got down there, opened the door, and was halfway through telling Deedee what she wanted to eat when she noticed the other human in the room.

“Michael.” She whispers. She stare unabashed at him, taking in the sight of him after not seeing him for a little over a year. His hair was longer, the dark circles under his eyes more prominent, but his eyes were still that gorgeous, vibrant color they always were.

He stares at her for a panicked moment before offering a small smile and whispering back. “Hi.”

Wisteria wants nothing more than to jump for joy at him actually talking to her, but she knows that it might scare him off so instead she smiles at him. “It's been awhile. How are you?”

“Im fine. And you?”

“Wonderful. I trust you’re eating well? Taking care of yourself and all?”

He smiles in a way that she could only describe as sad. “Yeah, Deedee makes sure to drop food off in my room if I lose track of time and forget to come down here.”

“Well I’m glad you remembered today.”

He looks conflicted for a moment before he nods and walks out without another word. Wisteria frowns and Deedee approaches her carefully. 

“Wisty? Are you okay?”

This shakes Wisteria out of her thoughts and gets her smile. “Of course Deedee, I’m sorry. I’ll have what I normally get. And thank you, for looking after him.”

Deedee beams back up at her and nods vigorously.

 

A few hours later Wisteria is sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts with Penelope, listening to Professor Renshaw’s lecture on Boggarts. Halfway through the class Penelope nudges her and they make eye contact. Penelope gives her a look wondering what’s wrong and Wisteria responds with a look Penelope has seen many times and understands as simply meaning ongoing friend drama reappearing. 

“If you two could please stop making eyes at one another and pay attention in my class, that would be much appreciated.” Professor Renshaw’s voice suddenly snapped the two out of their silent conversation and had Wisteria blushing at being caught, but as always her idiotic friends were there to take the attention off of her. 

“Oh we greatly apologize Windy,” Sirius speaks up loudly, “But you see, Remus and I have recently discovered our deep love for one another and cannot keep our eyes off of each other. I’m afraid that there’s nothing that can be done about the matter.” Remus rolls his eyes at the comment, but chuckles to himself, his amusement getting the better of him.

“I believe you are quite mistaken Siri,” This times it’s Gideon who speaks up, “Windy was actually referring to Fabs and I, see we’ve discovered the secret to twin telepathy, but seeing as we haven’t gotten enough practice with it yet, we must maintain intense eye contact for it to work properly.”

“Well Mr. Black I am sure that you’re most recent romantic adventure is heartbroken at the news, and congratulations Prewetts at inventing twin telepathy, but unfortunately for you I do know something that can be done about both matters. It’s called detention, tonight directly after dinner.”

“Consider it a date.” Sirius responds with a cheeky wink.

At this Remus sighs, “Professor Renshaw I am terribly sorry to have to ask this of you, but do you think you could push their detentions back to tomorrow night? Peter’s birthday is today and we were hoping to get together later to celebrate.”

Professor Renshaw narrows her eyes at the three guilty boys and then gives a slightly softer look to Remus and Peter before giving a small sigh. “Very well then. Tomorrow morning, I expect you three here before the sun rises. You can help me get ready for tomorrow’s lesson.”

“Professor, tomorrow is Saturday. We don’t have any lessons.” Jane points out.

“Well if my lesson had not been interrupted I may have gotten to that sooner. As you all know by now, this unit is on Boggarts. Well, an ex-boyfriend of mine happens to own a Boggart that he captured a while ago and he’s willing to lend it to me for educational purposes. The lesson is completely voluntary, but if you wish to try your luck against a Boggart, you are welcome to. That lesson will be tomorrow between lunch and dinner.”

By the end of the day the whole of third year was buzzing about the possibility of facing their worst fears. As usual, Wisteria was up in her room, working on homework and talking through the logistics of actually showing up tomorrow. 

“There’s no way I’m going tomorrow.” Shannon declares. “I mean, I would literally be facing my worst fear… I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that.” 

“Well I’m going.” Penelope says with a nonchalant shrug. “It’ll be interesting. Besides, I would never hear the end of it from my aunt if I didn’t show.”

“I don’t think that I’ll go. I’m having a pretty good year and I don’t need impending knowledge of my worst fear messing that up for me.” Jane says.

“I’m still on the fence about it.” Christine tells them.

“Same. I’m just gonna decide tomorrow.” Wisteria decides. 

“Are you going to Peter’s party later?” Shannon asks. 

“No. I still have some homework I need to do.”

Penelope rolls her eyes. “Come on girl. We all know you’re up all night anyway. Just go to the party and stay up all night as usual, except doing homework instead of being restless in bed.”

Wisteria chews on her lip as she considers it for a moment.  _ If I put this off I could be up for hours and lose my motivation to write these essay’s. I’m only halfway through potions and I still have Care of Magical Creatures left, but those subjects aren’t necessarily difficult, I already did the challenging homework. But I still need to read back over my Transfigurations essay. _

“Well what about you guys?” She finally says, deciding to avoid giving a definite answer for as long as she can. “Are you all going?”

“We weren’t invited.” Jane says with a shrug. “You’re the one who’s friends with the Marauders, the rest of us are just friends by association.”

“I’m not  _ that  _ close to them.” Her friends give her identical looks to show that they don’t believe her. “Okay, so I study with them some, but that’s all. Besides, they all prefer Lily over me, just like most of the school.”

“Okay, nope.” Penelope says standing up. “I am not letting you wallow in a pool of self pity, stress, and insomnia all night. We are going to that party.”

“Pen! You weren’t even invited.” 

“Then we’ll tell them I’m your date or something. Come on. Let’s go.” She stoops down and grabs Wisteria’s arms, pulling hard to get the red head to stand up.

“Fabian will be there remember? They’ll know it’s a load of bull.”

“Then we’ll figure out some other excuse on the way. Come on.”

Wisteria glances back at her pile of homework and then looks at Penelope apologetically before plopping back down on the floor. Penelope groans and reaches down to drag her up again, but Wisteria is staying put. 

“Wist!” Penelope complains.

“I’m not like you Pen! I’m not naturally a genius, I need to work on these before I lose all ability to focus for the night.” Penelope gives her an uncaring stare for a moment before, once again, moving to attempt to lift Wisteria from the floor. “If I go to the lesson tomorrow can I stay here?”

Penelope glares at her for a moment before caving. “Fine.”

Wisteria throws her a victorious smile before clambering back onto her bed with her homework. “You know,” Penelope mumbles. “With how hard you fought to not go, I would almost think that you’re avoiding someone.”

“Well what about you? Little miss “I hate people” jumped at the opportunity to go to the party, it’s almost as if you’re hoping to see someone there.”

Penelope laughs humorlessly. “And who would that be?”

“Remus.”

Penelope stutters and the other girls stare wide eyed, jaws dropped.

“You’re telling us that Pen has a crush on Lupin?” Christy asked.

“That is so not true.” Penelope says, having recovered from the initial shock.

“Oh it so is.” Wisteria insists. “Dont think for a minute that I didn’t see you blushing at James’ party when you said you’d date him.”

Penelope glares at her, chewing the inside of her cheek for a moment before saying, “Well at least I haven’t been pining over the same guy for nearly 2 years without making a move on him.” She pointed looks at Shannon who puffs her chest, lifts her chin high and smiles victoriously.

“That, dear friend, is where you are dead wrong. Will asked me on a date to Hogsmeade next weekend.”

“What?” All of her friends yell in unison. “When did this happen? Why didn’t we hear about it sooner?”

Shannon laughs. “We were in the library working on our Muggle Studies homework together. It was just before dinner and I was planning on telling you guys once we got up here.”

“You’re actually going on a date with Will! That’s amazing!” Jane yells, throwing herself at Shannon and hugging her tight. The girls spend the rest of the night talking about her upcoming date. 

 

Wisteria doesnt wake up until after lunch, and even then she really only wakes up because Penelope was there to shake her awake.

“Wist!” Penelope yells in her face. “You’ve gotta get up, the lesson is starting soon!”

Wisteria reluctantly opens her eyes and squints at Penelope. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Well no shit, you slept in way too long. What time did you fall asleep anyway?” She asks, throwing clothes at her.

Wisteria yawns and rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she thinks. “I dunno. The sky was turning kinda blue by the time I was tired enough to sleep so… Whatever time the sun rises?”

Penelope stops what she’s doing to stare at Wisteria. “You’re telling me that you stayed up until 6:30?”

Wisteria shrugs. “I guess.”

“Well it’s no wonder you look like shit then. Anyway, you’re getting no pity from me. Get your ass out of bed, into clothes, and to my aunts room!” 

 

A few minutes later the two rush into the classroom, the last ones there, but still technically ontime. Christine was already there waiting on them. 

“Where have you two been? I started to worry when I realized that I had gotten here before Pen.” 

Penelope points an accusing finger at Wisteria. “Ask… her.” She says between catching her breath. 

“Another late night?” Christine asks and gets a nod from Wisteria. “How late?”

“6:30”

Christine whistles. “Damn. Thats rough.”

“You’re telling me.”

Professor Renshaw walks into the room and everyone goes silent. “Alright, I need all of you to form a line, you’ll each face your boggart one at a time, otherwise he gets confused. Now chop chop, single file line, starting here.”

Wisteria feels her stomach drop at the idea of facing a boggart.  _ What will my boggart be? Roaches? Geese? Killer fish? Does it have to be a specific animal or whatever or can it be a concept? What if my worst fear is failure? What does it do then? _

Despite being halfway down the line, Wisteria finds herself moving forward at much too quick a pace for her liking. The goofy things that pop up after the spell has been cast help to unravel some of the fear in her stomach, but definitely not all of it. When it’s Penelope’s turn Wisteria has to turn away and close her eyes, she can’t bring herself to look at other peoples fears anymore, it just makes her more nervous at facing her own.

“You’ll be fine.” She hears Fabian’s voice say. She opens her eyes to find him standing there, in the line behind her. 

“But what if I’m not?”

“Then Ms. Renshaw is right there, and I am right here.” He slightly raises his hand, as if he wants to touch her or hold her, but then he hesitates and puts it back down. While disappointed he didn’t give her a reassuring hug or shoulder squeeze or anything, Wisteria still smiles up at him, thankful for his presence.

Then it’s Wisteria’s turn and she turns around reluctantly. The smile drops from her face immediately as the Boggart in front of her takes the form of Lily, a cold look in her green eyes and a sneer on her lips.

“You really thought that you mattered?” Lily says shortly before shifting to become Penelope.

She laughs humorlessly, her face looking at Wisteria with contempt. “What gave you the impression that we actually cared about you?” Then she changes into Jane.

“Why would we want to be friends with you?” Jane bites and quickly becomes Shannon.

“You’re useless.” Shannon shifts into Christine.

“Replaceable.” Christine utters that one word with such malice that Wisteria can barely even see her become Fabian through her tears.

“I hate you.” That one, simple sentence breaks her.

Her bottom lip trembles as she raises her wand weakly and feebly mumbles, “R-ridikulus” It doesn’t work.

“I only dated you as a joke.” Fabian says cruelly. “You don’t matter to me, you don’t matter to anyone. You’re nobody, barely even worth a second glance, you filthy mudblood.”

Wisteria can barely even stand anymore she’s shaking so bad, but then there’s someone behind her, a warm hand on her shoulder, a nose pressed into her temple, hot breath on her ear, and Fabians voice again, this time much gentler and much closer. 

“It’s not true Wist, not at all. You do matter, more than you could ever know. You matter to your family, to your friends… and you matter to me. You can do this, I believe in you, and if you can’t, then I’m right here to help. I promise.”

Wisteria shivers at his closeness, he’s barely touched her at all since they started dating and now he’s so close to her that she can feel the heat of his body. 

“Ridikulus.” She says with more confidence and suddenly the Fabian in front of her is okay and laughing his head off at something. She turns around and wraps the real Fabian in a tight hug.

“Thank you.” She whispers against his shoulder.

He chuckles and she lets go, beginning to walk away. “You think my laugh is funny?” He calls after her. 

She turns and gives him a huge smile. “I think contagious is a better word.”


	28. Year 3 - Part 7

“It was going perfectly fine until I told him I was happy to see him!” Wisteria rants as she pases the room. Penelope is sat on her bed, looking over her homework and nodding along.

“Are you sure you didn’t say anything that might have upset him?”

“Why would me saying that I was happy to see him have upset him! Isn’t it typically a good thing when someone wants to see you!”

“You know that it’s a special case with Michael.”

Wisteria runs her hands through her hair and tugs on the ends of it. “I wish I could just ask Will about him!”

“Why can’t you? And stop pulling on your hair like that or you’ll go bald.”

“I can’t because he doesn’t talk to Will either, so he probably won’t know much more than me, and even if he did, I can’t crash his and Shay’s date. I would never forgive myself.”

“Speaking of, why aren’t you out with Fabian right now?” 

“We have plans for lunch at 1.

“Its 12:50 Wist.”

Wisteria’s eyes widen. “It is?” She scrambles to the bathroom to glance at herself in the mirror and then looks back at Penelope.

“Thanks Pen. And sorry for making you listen to me rant.”

Penelope shrugs. “It’s nothing at all for my best friend. Besides, it doesn’t get annoying until week 2 of the same rant.”

Wisteria smiles at her. “You should see if you can’t hang out with Remus today. Maybe even go on a date.” Penelope looks horrified at the idea and Wisteria laughs at her. “Lily and I are studying after Fabian and I get back, so I wont be back until late.”

“It’s not like you usually stay in bed anyway, or sleep at all for that matter. Now go, you don’t want to be late for your date, do you?”

Flashing Penelope one last grin, Wisteria rushes out of the room and down to the tree by the Black Lake that she and Fabian had agreed to meet at.

 

Fabian has been standing under the tree for a few minutes now waiting for Wisteria and the irrational part of his brain has started to take over.  _ She’s lost interest and doesn’t want to be with you anymore. You were too forward last weekend. She didn’t like how close you got while she was facing that boggart. _

“Hey, sorry I’m running a little late, I wanted to get out my frustrations by ranting to Pen before meeting up with you so I wasn’t as snarky.” Wisteria’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts and he smiles at her.

“It’s no problem at all. What was bothering you?”

She waves her hand dismissively. “I ran into Michael is all.”

Fabian frowns. “Oh.”

“Fabs, it’s fine, really. I just tried to talk to him and he froze up and left.”

“I know, I just… Nevermind.”

Wisteria looks at him concerned. “Fabs, if there’s something bothering you, we need to talk about it. Otherwise we’ll never get anywhere.”

Fabian smiles at her and hesitantly takes her hand to begin leading hr into Hogsmeade, “Then it’s a good thing nothing is bothering me. Now come on, let’s just enjoy our date.”

She smiles softly at him and together they make their way to Hogsmeade hand in hand. 

The date goes just as smoothly as all the others before it, but this time they were holding hands nearly the entire time and both of them seemed to be in a better mood because of it. When they are done they make their way back to the castle and to the Gryffindor common room so that Wisteria can meet up with Lily. Fabian lets her into the common room and kisses her cheek before heading up to his room and leaving Wisteria smiling dumbly in the Gryffindor common room.

 

After a few minutes of waiting, Wisteria finally sees Lily walking in through the Fat Lady.

“Wisty! Wonderful, you’re already here. Remus is helping a few first years in the Library right now, so we should have a while with the rest of the Marauders and once we’re done with them we can talk to Madame Pomfrey.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go.” 

The twins make their way to the Marauders door and knock. The door opens rather quickly to reveal Peter. “Oh. Hello girls. Are you here to talk about the… Er... “

“Yeah. We’re here to talk about all of your…” Lily trails off and helpful voice from inside the room speaks up.

“I think we should call it our ‘furry little problem’!”

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “Wonderful James, that’s not at all conspicuous.”

“Well, it wont be if we all come up with a really good story behind it.” 

“May we come in Peter?” Lily asks, ignoring James, as usual.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry.” The pudgy boy steps aside to let the girls into the room.

“So ladies, what can we do for you?” Sirius asks, lounging lazily on his bed.

“We just wanted to talk about the plan.” Wisteria says. “You guys have been just as talkative as usual so we assumed you haven’t done anything yet unless you were using sticking charms, but those can get tricky, so…”

“We had talked for a bit and decided we’d do it over the summer.” James says. “I live on a big enough property so that my parents will have no idea.”

“My parents are trusting me home alone all summer while they visit my aunt in America.” Peter says.

“And my parents leave me pretty much completely alone, so they should have no idea.” Sirius tells them.

The girls nod. “That’s what we figured, which brings us to our second topic of conversation.” Lily says. “Wisty and I know the most out of all five of us on how this works and we would feel much more comfortable if we were able to check in on the three of you periodically to help if necessary, so we need to figure out ways to do that over the summer.”

“You could use Floo Powder.” Peter suggests.

James beams at him. “Brilliant Pete! We’ll simply tell you where we live and you can just Floo there.”

The girls share a look. “We don’t have any Floo Powder…” Wisteria tells them.

James waves a dismissive hand. “No problem, you can steal some of mine until you get your own.” He reaches to the other side of his bed and grabs a piece of parchment. “Here, we’ll write our addresses on this parchment so that you guys have them for the summer.” He jots down his address and passes the parchment to Peter who does the same and passes it to Sirius who stares at the paper and hesitates. 

“What’s the matter Siri?” James asks.

“I… er… My uh… My parents are a little stingy about… er… unwanted guests… They're not the kindest people in the world to… well…”

“Muggleborns.” Wisteria finishes. He glances up at her, a pained look in his grey eyes. 

“Yeah. But, there is a coffee shop that I love that’s run by a Squib nearby and it has a fireplace. I’ll write a letter to her and ask if we can use it. It shouldn’t be a problem so long as we don’t use up her Floo Powder, she and I are good friends.”

“Okay. Tells us when you get a reply and for now just write that address down on the parchment.” Lily tells him.

Sirius nods and writes the address down before handing it to the girls. 

Suddenly the door opens behind them and the entire room turns to stare wide eyed at Remus who freezes at the number of eyes on him.

“Ummm… What’s going on?” He asks carefully. 

Everyone in the room seems to freeze, not knowing what to say and looking panicked, but Sirius recovers quickly. “Hey Rem. The girls just came in to chat a bit. Actually they were just leaving I think, right girls?”

“Er… right…” Lily says nervously. “Yeah, we were just leaving… Come on Wisty…” She grabs her sister’s arm and begins to pull her out of the room, but Wisteria pulls her arm stubbornly out of Lily’s grip.

“No. He deserves to know, I see no reason why this should be kept secret from him.”

The entire room has now turned to stare at her, but she gives Sirius a pointed look before turning to face Remus directly.

“Wisty…” Sirius says in a deliberately warning tone of voice, playing along with Wisteria’s plan.

“Why shouldn’t he know? We’ve already established it changes nothing.”

“Wisty! You can’t just-”

“He should know!” Wisteria cuts off James. “He should know that we know.”

James and Lily finally catch onto her plan and give identical defeated sighs.

“Fine.” Lily says. “Then tell him.”

Wisteria faces Remus again, but before she can say anything he’s sunken down on his bed. “You figured it out.” He says in a small voice.

The twins sit on either side of him on his bed and wrap their arms around him. “Remus…” Wisteria says. “This doesn’t change anything. You are still you, and will always be you. It doesn’t matter that you have another side to you, everyone has other, ugly sides.”

“It doesn’t matter that you’re a werewolf Rem, because you will always be so much more than just a werewolf and anyone who cares about you will be able to see that. You are first and foremost our friend and that will never change.” Lily promises him.

Remus squeezes his eyes shut and bites down hard on his lip and Wisteria puts her hand gently on the side of his face, moving his head to face hers until their foreheads were resting up against one another and he was looking her in the eye. “You are Remus John Lupin, a Wizard, a student at the best Wizarding school in the world, a member of the brave house of Gryffindor, and most importantly a member of the Marauders. You are  _ not  _ a monster, and the term werewolf does not and never will define you. Everyone in this room loves you Remus, and that will never change.” Wisteria sits up, away from Remus and stands.

Lily gives him one last squeeze and stands up as well. “In all seriousness though, we really do have to leave.”

“Thank you.” Remus whispers to them.

The girls smile at him and turn to leave only to have Sirius beat them to the door. “I’ll walk you girls out, I have a date tonight that I simply cannot miss.”

Remus gives him a skeptical look. “A date? This late at night?”

“Oh my dear Rem, I do indeed have a date. And she’s waiting for me in the Room of Requirements so that she can fulfill my requirements.” Sirius sends a wink to Remus and the whole room makes disgusted noises. 

“None of us needed to know that Sirius!” Peter complained.

Sirius laughs. “Well then next time, don’t doubt me. Now then girls shall we be on our way?”

The three make their way out of the room and down to the Fat Lady, once they are all outside Gryffindor Tower, Sirius pulls them both into a hug. “Thank you girls, for everything you are doing for Remus. It means the world to all of us, especially him.”

The girls smile and hug him back. “It’s nothing really. Now go on to your date. And don’t forget to write that letter to the Squib lady!”

“Of course. See you girls later.”

After watching him saunter off down the hall the girls make go to the infirmary to talk to Madame Pomfrey. Upon entering, the healer gives the girls a strange look.

“Evans? Today isn’t one of our sessions, what is it?”

“We felt it was time to come clean about why we were asking for sessions to begin with.” Lily confesses.

“Oh really? And why is that?”

“Because we know that our friend Remus is a Werewolf and want to be able to help him when he gets injured during the full moons.” Wisteria says bluntly. 

Madame Pomfrey sits in stunned silence for a moment, staring at the girls. Then finally she says, “I appreciate your concern for Mr. Lupin, but I assure you both that I can handle his injuries myself.”

“We know that you are a very capable woman Madame, but we feel that perhaps Remus would feel better about the situation if he could be surrounded by friends for as much of it as possible and since, of course, we can’t be with him while he’s transformed we thought the next best thing would be for us to be there helping him heal when he wakes up.” Lily explains.

Madame Pomfrey studies the girls for some time before saying, “I will need to up your lessons to three times a week, on top of regular volunteer hours helping me with any patients I may have at the time and I expect you both to read up on any materials I give you is that understood?”

“Yes Madame.” Both girls respond without hesitation. 

“I also hope you understand that I will be with you the entire time, at no moment am I going to leave you alone with Mr. Lupin until I deem you both capable. It will be no easy task, you will both essentially be taking on an entire course.”

“We understand. Thank you.” The twins respond.

After another few seconds of silence Madame Pomfrey simply nods. “Very well then. Your lessons start tomorrow, they will be every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday at the normal times and if any of those dont work then we will work something out. I will tell you which books you are to read over summer holiday and I expect them all to be read by your return in September where we will resume your lessons based around whichever classes you are both taking next year. You may leave.”


	29. Year 4 - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh I feel lazy... This time it was mainly impatience with myself because I had already written the next chapter, but was drawing a blank on this one, but this was going to be their summer chapter where the Evans twins helped the Marauders through the animagus process (dont worry that havent completed the transformations yet, that comes later) and there was going to be a few letters back and forth from Wisty to her friends and Fabian and maybe some POV of each of the boys home lives when the girls went to check up on them, but alas I am lazy and am impatient when it comes to writers block! Enjoy the next chapter, sorry again.

**** The ride to Hogsmeade on the scarlet train was nothing new, nor was the ride to the castle in the carriages or the sorting ceremony. The feast on the other hand was interesting, to say the least. The Marauders decided to start the year off with a bang by setting Nifflers loose in the Great Hall. The chaos that ensued cost the four Gryffindors a month of detentions and a stern scolding by Professor McGonagall. 

“I don’t care what Minney says,” James announces loudly as they enter their dorm room, “it was totally worth a month of detention! I mean who knew those little suckers would wreck that much havoc? It was beautiful! And I’m sure the ladies appreciated that one that ripped up your shirt Sirius, they got a peak of that summer body of yours through the holes, I think I saw a few of them faint from the sight alone!” James falls dramatically onto his bed in his imitation of the girl. Sirius laughs at his friends dramatics as he removes the freshly ruined shirt to put on a new one.

“Where did you get all of those new scars from Sirius?” Peter asks him.

Sirius tenses up, but then nonchalantly says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The only new scars I get are from when you idiots talk me into doing something stupid.”

“Hey!” James protests. “Don’t you try to pin that on us! You’re the biggest culprit out of all of us for most of the stuff we do!”

“James isn’t wrong.” Remus says. “I am curious though. Most of what we do shouldn’t get you injured enough to give you scars and if so, not that many. What happens?”  

“Yeah mate. There are more and more each year, you aren’t leaving us out of some epic adventure are you?” James asks.

“Believe me, it’s not an adventure you’d want to be apart of.” Sirius mumbles. His friends look at him with concern written on their faces. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

“No offence Sirius,” James says with a careful tone to his voice. “But the last time one of us said that it was Remus and he happened to be hiding something pretty big. Whatever it is you know you can trust us. I think we kind of proved our trustworthiness with Remus’ situation.”     

“I said I’m fine, so just butt out of it okay?”

“Sirius?” Peter walks up to his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder, Sirius flinches at the unexpected touch.

“I’m fine.” He repeats, obviously getting irritated.

“Do you really not trust us after all this time?” James asks.

“That’s not it at all and you know it, I just… It’s none of your business.”

“If you’re getting injured enough to get scars then I think-“

“I said it’s none of your damn business!” Sirius snaps.

The room falls silent and Sirius grits his teeth as he finished throwing on a new shirt. He grabs his wand and walks over to the door to leave. Remus catches his eye just as he’s about to walk out and Sirius hesitates before scowling and saying coldly, “Don’t give me that look Lupin.” Sirius slams the door on his way out.

 

Wisteria is on her way back from the Library, having gotten a book on Nifflers, when she runs into Sirius who is obviously in a rotten mood.

“Sirius? What’s wrong?”

As quick as lightning Sirius dropped his scowl and replaced it with his usual charming smirk. “Nothing at all love.”

“You can drop the act Sirius, I don’t appreciate your bullshit.”

The smirk dropped immediately. “Well you’ve certainly got a mouth haven’t you.”

“Keen observation Black, but unless you haven’t figured it out yet all animals have mouths.”

Sirius let out a humorless chuckle. “Sarcasm.”

“Do you need someone to talk to?”

“No.”

“It was a rhetorical question Sirius and you answered wrong.”

“If I needed to talk to someone don’t you think the other Marauders would’ve beaten you to it?”

“Sometimes you don’t need or want to talk to your closest friends. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to an acquaintance.”

“Acquaintance. Ouch Evans, that’s cold. I thought I meant more than that to you.”

Wisteria opens the door to a nearby empty classroom. “Come on. Let’s talk.”

“What makes you think I’ll talk to you about my problems?”

“I didn’t ask you to talk about your problems. I just asked you to talk to me. If the topic of your problems happens to come up then perhaps we’ll talk about that, but for now we can just have a normal conversation. Cheer you up a bit before one of your fangirls sees you like this and rumors begin circulating that Sirius Black is an actual human being with feelings.”

After another humorless laugh and a moment’s hesitation, Sirius follows her into the empty room, closing the door behind them.

“Ask me a question.” Wisteria tells him.

“What?”

“To get a natural conversation flowing. Ask me a question.”

“Umm… Okay. What’s that book about?”

“Nifflers. You all made me curious about them after your little stunt in the Great Hall tonight. I suppose you know all there is to know about them” 

Sirius shakes his head no, “Remus did all the research on them and Peter went over to James’ house at the end of the summer to help him get his hands on a few. I honestly don’t know much about them.”

“Would you like to? I’ve already skimmed a few books on them, this one was just more in depth so I wanted to take it for a bit.”

“Sure.”

Wisteria launches into a long-winded explanation on all that she knows about them. As she talks Sirius begins to notice the way she talks with so much enthusiasm and spirit, even on something as boring as Nifflers. She makes learning about them feel more like an adventure than a lesson, like she’s telling a story rather than giving a lecture. She tells him stories she’s heard involving Nifflers and makes him feel as if he’s living the tale she’s telling.

Interested in her ability to keep his attention, he asks her what they’re learning in History of Magic. After a small moment of her scolding him for not knowing for himself, she once again launches into a story and he’s never been so interested in History before in his life. After a while she stops talking a looks a little sheepish.

“I’m sorry.” She apologizes. “I feel like I’m the only one talking, you’ve probably been falling asleep this whole time.”

“No, not at all. I like listening to your voice.” Sirius says without thinking and then adds a quick smirk and wink afterwards to make the comment less embarrassing.

“Honestly Sirius.” Wisteria says, rolling her eyes. “Do you have to flirt all the time?”

“Sorry. You do have a boyfriend after all. I should probably stop if I don’t want him to kill me.”

Wisteria laughs. “He wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh I’m not so sure about that Wisty. I can definitely see him killing someone. Though that might just because he’s ginger. No offense of course.”

Wisteria laughs again. “Oh gosh, look at this. I’m supposed to be the one cheering you up and here I am laughing at the jokes you’re making.”

“But you have cheered me up.”

“Well that’s a relief. I thought I was failing miserably.”

“Actually you’re quite good at it. Have you had practice with cheering people up?”

“Sort of. I have a couple of friends who are prone to… episodes of depression. I’ve gotten used to helping them out when we are in a public place. It’s typically best to get them to an area that has minimal people and minimal noise and then get them to just talk. Depending on the person it could be getting them to rant, or get their mind off of whatever is bothering them or cracking a series of really bad jokes until they finally laugh a little bit. In your case it was just me talking apparently.”

“It really did help though. Thanks.”

“Any time.” Wisteria pauses before hesitantly asking, “Do you want to talk about whatever it was that you were upset about?”

The smile falls from his face and she immediately regrets asking him, but to her surprise he starts talking.

“I was in the room with the other Marauders and they just starting asking some question that I didn’t want them to ask.”

“Why didn’t you want them to ask?”

“Because the answers are kind of hard to say out loud.”

“I would’ve thought that after Remus you guys would have been a lot more open to being honest with each other.”

“Knowing that a group is trustworthy doesn’t necessarily make it easier to talk to them.”

“Careful, you keep saying poetic stuff like that and some people might get the idea that you actually have a brain inside that pretty little head of yours.”

“You think I’m pretty?” Sirius asks jokingly, causing Wisteria to laugh.

“What makes it hard to talk to them?” She asks him.

“It’s just… a difficult subject to talk about.”

“You don’t want them to pity you.” Wisteria concludes.

“Yeah. I also don’t want any of them to get involved.”

“Well damn Sirius. I never thought I’d say this, but you’re starting to sound like Remus.”

Sirius laughs a little and then glanced up at Wisteria. “What do you think I should do?”

“I think you need to get off your noble high horse and tell them. Knowing those guys, there’s no way they’re going to do something rash if you really don’t want them to, unless it’s a situation like Remus, if that’s the case then they will get involved, but I sincerely hope it’s not that bad. Just…. tell them, sooner rather than later. If you wait, all you’re going to do is cause them all more stress because then they have to worry about it and try to help a friend who wont let them in and believe me, when someone you care about shuts you out completely, it’s the worst feeling in the world.”

“And what if I don’t have the strength to bring myself to tell them the truth?”

Wisteria smiles at him. “Don’t ask stupid questions Sirius. You’re a Gryffindor aren’t you? Start acting like one.”

 

Wisteria left him alone after that to consider his next move. After Merlin knows how long he still had no idea what to do. If he tells them, they're just gonna worry about him every time they have to go home, but they can’t actually do anything to help, so really he would just stress them out more and that’s the last thing he wants. That was something he had figured out a while ago though. On the other hand, Wisteria has a point. If he doesn’t tell them, they're just gonna keep pushing until they find out on their own. Not telling them is just going to push back the inevitable and make it worse for all them. The problem now is finding a way and a time to tell them. This isnt the sort of thing you just tell people. At least it shouldn’t be that easy, right? Shouldn’t he have a plan going into this? Is he overthinking this? Procrastinating? Probably. 

After a while he leaves the room and makes his way back to Gryffindor tower, figuring that maybe if the marauders corner him he'll just tell them and rip that scab off. When he gets back to the room however, Peter is the only one there and he looks as calm as ever, not nearly as upset as he usually does when one of them has an outburst like Sirius had.  
Peter smiles at him. "The other two ran off to find you a bit ago. I told them I would wait in here in case you came back." Sirius nods silently and moves to sit on his bed.   
"I er... I ran into Wist in the hallway and we talked for a bit."  
"Are you up for talking a bit with me? Or is that an honor reserved for pretty girls?"  
Sirius laughs. "It is an honor reserved for pretty girls and best friends, you happen to fall into the latter category."  
Peter beams a bit at that. "When I was growing up I had a pretty good mix of both worlds I think. My parents are both wizards of course, but we lived in a muggle area, so I grew up with muggle kids. My best friend was a boy named Thomas. When we were seven he was hospitalized for a few days and when he got back my parents refused to let me go over to his house ever. They invited him over to our house a lot though... His mom had died when he was little and it messed his dad up a bit I think. His dad was an intimidating man to begin with, but then you took into account his alcoholism and well... Im sure you can imagine why he was hospitalized that one time and why my parents tried so hard to get him out of that house. My mom didn’t tell me what was going on until after our first year here. His dad had been beating him. When I got back I tried to talk to Thomas about it, but he avoided the subject and got irritated whenever I mentioned it. We don’t talk much now, but I do know he got out of there and somewhere better." Peter gives him a knowing smile. "I wont tell the others, but when you're ready to talk about it we'll all be here. You're not alone and it will get better."  
Sirius looks at the other boy, a little bit in awe of him. "I don’t know how to begin telling them." He whispers honestly.   
"It’s never going to be an easy thing to talk about, but it helps to let others know. Puts everyone a little at ease."  
Sirius nods. "Can you... When they get back... Can you help me tell them if I need it? They deserve to know."  
Peter nods. "Just out of curiosity, did you tell Wisty?"  
"No. We just... talked. She cheered me up a bit and told me to tell you all. She said, and I quote, 'You're a Gryffindor arent you? Start acting like one.'"  
Peter laughs at that. "She is something isn’t she?"  
Before Sirius can answer the door opens and James rushes with Remus a bit behind him. "We couldn’t find-" James freezes as he sees Sirius.  
"Sirius." Remus says. "We were looking for you."  
"Look mate,” James says, “you don’t have to tell us anything. We were just worried is all, didn’t mean to freak you out."  
Sirius looks at Peter who smiles and nods encouragingly.  
Sirius clenches his jaw. "No. You all deserve to know. You've always been there for me and I know you always will be so... I... Peter, I dont... What do I say?"  
"Start from the beginning like I did when I was telling you about Thomas."  
Sirius nods a little and draws a shaky breath. "My parents have always been strict and I'll admit I wasn’t the best son, but..." He swallows hard and shakes his head a bit. "Er... When I would get in trouble they would lock me in my room with no food or water for a few days to 'help me learn my lesson'. And... When I was sorted into Gryffindor... I expected a howler or something, but I got nothing. They ignored me all year and told Mercury that he wasn’t to speak to me until I stopped disgracing the Black family name. When I got home my mum... She er... She sent me to my room with no food or water for a few days and told me not to speak to my brothers, she said she didn’t want me 'tainting' them. When I ignored her and tried to talk to Regulus she..." He feels bile rising in his throat.  
"We get the picture. You don’t have to continue mate." James tells him quietly. The bed beside Sirius dips as his friends join him and wrap him in a group hug. Sirius lets out a sob, trying to cover it up with a cough, and his friends hold him tighter.  
"If there is ever anything we can do to help, you have to promise us you'll let us know." Remus says.  
Sirius nods. "I promise."  
"You're always welcome at my house." James tells him. "Anytime you need, just come on over, no questions asked. My parents would be more than happy to help."  
Sirius nods again and leans into his friends. "Thank you." He whispers over and over again.


	30. Year 4 - Part 2

**** “Are you trying out for the team again?” Fabian asks Wisteria, they are sitting in the Three Broomsticks with Gideon, the Marauders, and Wisteria’s friends.

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna go for Keeper again. What about you guys?”

“You know it!” Gideon says excitedly. “Fabs and I are gonna be the best Beaters this school has ever seen!”

“You seem rather confident for a guy who hasn’t made the cut the past two years.” Penelope remarks.

“One should never lose confidence over such trivial facts.” Fabian says in a grandiose voice.

“I agree.” Shannon adds, “And I’ll be trying out again too.”

“Same for James and I.” Sirius says.

“Who’re the Captains this year anyway?” Christine asks.

“Ravenclaw’s is still Olivia Green.” Shannon tells them.

“We’ve got Patricia Rakepick this year.” James says. “And if I Remember correctly, Slytherin’s is Emma Vanity again.”

Peter snorts. “Vanity is right. She’s wretched and so full of herself.”

“You seem a little opinionated there Pete.” Gideon jokes.

“Yeah, well I had a not too nice run in with her a while back. I admit that it’s impressive she made captain her third year, but that doesn’t make up for her horrible personality.”

“Oh!” Remus suddenly exclaims, “Before I forget, you’re all invited to Sirius and I’s joint birthday party. It’ll be next Friday after dinner in the Room of Requirements.”

“Shay and I can come, but we wont be there right away. Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts are then.” Wisteria tells him.

“I might be a little late too.” Jane says. “I’m tutoring one of the first years in DADA.”

“Is it that Quirinus kid?” Christine asks, to which Jane nods. “That kid is pathetic. If he doesnt toughen up a bit before getting out there into the real world he’s gonna be eaten alive.”

“Oh and what would you know about the real world little miss 15 year old?”

“Shut up Pen.”

“Wisty!” They hear Lily yell her sisters name as she runs into the restaurant. “What are you doing? We’re going to be late!”

“Late for what?” Fabian asks.

“Wisty and I were going to study some of the History of Magic content with some older students today.”

“Oh! I completely forgot that was today. Sorry to leave early you guys, but I did promise I’d be there. I’ll see you all later!” Before she can talk herself out of it she bends down and give a quick kiss to Fabian’s cheek and rushes out the door, both of them blushing furiously. Once they’re clear of Hogsmeade Lily and Wisteria slow down a bit. “Sorry Lil. I totally forgot we had a lesson with Pomfrey today.”

“It’s fine. I’m just glad we both remembered that cover story. Are you going to Remus and Sirius’ party Friday?”

“Of course I am. They invited all my friends.”

“Have you gotten them presents yet?”

“I’ve gotten Remus’, but I can’t decide on one for Sirius. Why?”

“Because I have an idea of one for Sirius and I was thinking we could split the cost of it and give it to him as a joint present.”

“Works for me I suppose. Now lets hurry up or we’re gonna get a lecture from Pomfrey.”

 

A little under a week later all of their friends are gathered in the Room of Requirements. The space is big enough to accomodate all of them and has tables for food, drinks, and presents. As promised, Jane, Shannon, and Wisteria show up the the part a little late. 

“Did you make the team?” Jane asks them as they enter the room.

Wisteria beams. “We both did!”

“Wow! Congratulations!”

“Girls! You’re here!” James yells from across the room. “Wonderful! Time for presents!”

Everyone moves to the presents table and Sirius starts with picking up the biggest one in his pile. 

“That’s from Wisty and me.” Lily tells him.

“Sorry it’s just the one from the both of us, but it was a tad too expensive for just one of us so we teamed up to buy it for you.” Wisteria adds.

“You guys didnt have to get me anything expensive.” He says as he starts to unwrap it. Once the wrapping is off a large smile breaks out on his face. “You guys got me a record player?”

“You said once that you were jealous of mine.” Wisteria reminds him. “So I figured you’d want one.”

“I do! This is amazing! Thank you!”

“There are already some records in there. Most of them are The Beatles.” Lily tells him.

“Which one’s your present for me?” Remus asks.

“We got separate presents for you.” Wisteria tells him. “This one’s mine.”

He opens it to find a big book looking back at him. “I don’t recognize this author.”

“It’s a book of poems by Edgar Allan Poe.”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with his work.”

“Well he’s by far one of my favorite poets. Here, I’ll point out my favorite of his poems.” She flips through the book to a poem marked ‘Annabel Lee’ and points to it. “I love the language and story of this one. I mean, just listen to this last bit, ‘And neither the angels in Heaven above nor the demons down under the sea can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.’ it’s just beautifully written. And this one,” 

She flips a few pages to one marked ‘Bells’, “This one has a very nice rhythm to it I think. ‘Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, to the tintinabulation that so musically wells from the bells, bells, bells, bells’. And The Raven,” 

She flips to the back of the book to show him a poem with that name, “The Raven is a classic. ‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, while I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.’ I am telling you, Edgar Allan Poe was a genius poet and his works are a must read. If you enjoy it I can also give you my copy of some of his short stories. My personal favorite is the Cask Of Amontillado, but Lily has always preferred The Sphinx.”

“Careful Wisty or you’ll bore him out of actually reading it at all.” Lily warns.

Remus laughs. “That’s not true at all. They sound lovely and I’ll definitely read them. Thank you for the present.”

“You’re welcome.”


	31. Year 4 - Part 3

 

_I’m so sick of listening to Professor Binns drone on and on. I want out of this class!_

Wisteria sees scrawled in Fabian’s messy handwriting on her desk. She smiles to herself as an idea comes to her mind.

_Catch me._

She writes and then refuses to meet his eyes as he sends her a confused look from across the aisle. Over the next minute or so she makes herself look noticeably sick, so that people around her start to ask if she’s okay. She continuously tells them that she’ll be fine and then finally she quickly writes,

_NOW!_

On the desk and pretends to faint into the isle. Fabian moves quickly and barely manages to catch her before she hits the floor. Professor Binns looks at her.

“Miss Evans, do you need to go to the infirmary?”

Wisteria only nods weakly as a response.

“I’ll get her there.” Fabian says, concern written across his face.

Binns nods and Fabian picks her up, one arm under her legs and one behind her back. He carries he12r out into the hallway and closes the door behind them. As soon as the door closes Wisteria perks back up and wiggles around in his arms.

“Set me down already.” She says and he obeys.

“You’re okay now?”

“What? Oh, no. I mean, yes I’m okay, but I never felt unwell.”

“But…”

“You said you wanted out, I got us out. I’ve already read all of the material we’re going over, I can catch you up on what we missed later, but for now what do you want to do?” 

       "I dunno. Get some food?"

       "To the kitchens we go then!"

       After the two eat their fill in the kitchens they move to sitting under the tree by the Black Lake. 

       "You are life saver Wisteria!" Fabian continues to go on as he had been the past while causing her to laugh. "I'm serious! One more minute in there and I would've been the one fainting! From boredom!"

       Wisteria rolls her eyes. "Sure you would have Fabs."

       "Oh yee of little faith. I'm telling you, I would've been a real damsel in distress!"

       "Would that put me in the roll of knight in shining armor who sweeps you off your feet?"        

       "Absolutely!"

       "Fabs!" Gideon's voice reaches them faintly as he runs towards them from the entrance to the school. "What the hell was that back there? Why aren't you in the infirmary Wisty?"

       "Oh I was fine. We just wanted out."

       Gideon's jaw drops. "And you couldn't have taken me with you? I could've died in there! Of boredom!"

       "I told you!" Fabian says smugly.

       "Anyway, Fabs, we've gotta go get our dinner quick or we'll be late for detention."

       "Detention? What is it this time?"

       "Nothing you need to concern yourself with my darling." Fabian says, standing up. 

       Wisteria flushes at the pet name. "Well go and serve your detention then. I expect the full story later though."

       Gideon gives her a mini salute. "Roger that Evans."

 

    After dinner Wisteria wanders the halls a bit to clear her mind of worries about the full moon. As passes by the entrance to the school James comes barreling down the corridor towards her and upon seeing the look on his face grows concerned.

“James? What’s going on?”

“How about you ask Sirius.” James growls out as he continues down the hall, not slowing down at all.

Wisteria makes her way to the Gryffindor common room and waits outside once she gets there for someone to open up the entrance. Finally a first year comes and, after some convincing on Wisteria’s part, lets her in. Immediately Wisteria rushes up the stairs to the boy’s dormitory and knocks on the door until it opens to reveal Sirius.

“Wisty!” He says with his trademark smile on his face, but the smile doesn’t quite reach his voice.  “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Sirius what’s happened?”

“Whatever do you mean love?”

“I just passed James in the hall and he seemed pissed, but when I asked what was wrong all he said was to come and ask you.”

The smile drops from his face immediately. “Well come on in then.”

Wisteria walks inside and sits down on Remus’ bed, waiting for Sirius to start talking. After a few moments of silence she furrows her eyebrows. “Sirius? What happened?”

“I did something that James got mad at me for.”

“James is mad at you? I never thought I’d see the day.” Wisteria jokes, but Sirius doesn’t even crack a smile. “What did you do?”

“I told Snivelus about the entrance to the Shack at the Willow.”

“You did what!?” Wisteria yells. She stands up so quickly that she hits her head on the top of the bed.

“Wist-“ Sirius says as he moves to make sure she’s okay, but she bats his hand away.

“Don’t touch me.”

He recoils and looks down at the ground. “You reacted the same way as James. I know I messed up, he was antagonizing me and said something that crossed the line.”

“So you- ugh.” Wiseria’s head is pounding with a headache and her anger didn’t help. “You didn’t think about the consequences at all!”

“I push Snivellus around all the time anyway, what’s the harm in scaring him a bit.”

Wisteria looks at him, completely exasperated with his apparent stupidity. “The best case scenario is he gets beat up pretty bad by the Willow, but let’s say he gets past the Willow, not only will he discover Remus’ secret, but he also could be killed or turned by Remus! I cant believe you right now! Because of you Severus could be killed or his life could be ruined forever! I know you don’t care for him, but still what you have done is horrible! On top of the danger you put him in you also have now put Remus in a horrible situation! You basically told someone who has every reason to hate all of you his biggest secret! Remus’ secret could be all over the school by breakfast tomorrow, which would mean that Remus would be gone by lunch. On top of that if Sev does make it past the Willow then Remus will have to live with the knowledge that he either killed or turned someone!”

Halfway through her rant realization had dawned on Sirius just how bad he had messed up. “I… I didn’t think-“

“Of course you didn’t think! Because you never think! All you ever think about is yourself! You’re such a self-absorbed bastard you know that? I thought that at the very least you cared about your friends, but I guess not.”

“Of course I care about them, but I-“

“No! There is no excuse for this! I… Merlin, I don’t even know what to say to you! I am at a loss for words.”

“Well obviously not since you just said quite a few.” Sirius tries to joke, but all he gets is a glare from Wisteria.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbles.

“You should be.” She storms over to the door and slams it shut behind her. After leaving the Gryffindor common room Wisteria runs as fast as she can to the Willow and finds James and Severus halfway back to the school. Severus has a few injuries, including a broken arm, but otherwise looks okay.

“Severus.” Wisteria says as she approaches. “James put him down. I’ll heal him.” James does as he’s told and Wisteria heals her friend’s injuries. When she’s done she looks at James and can tell by the look on his face how far Severus had made it through the path.

“He knows.” She whispers to James.

“Yeah.” He replies through clenched teeth. “You talked to Sirius?”

“More like screamed at, but yeah. I have the story. I hope you won’t get offended if I avoid him for a while.”

“Not at all. I’m not planning on talking to him for a few days.”

“I’m not planning on talking to him for a few _months_.” Wisteria tells him.

“I don’t like Snape, not at all, but I would never do something like that. You know that, right?”

“Of course I do. If anything you wouldn’t do it because you know how bad Remus is hurting and wouldn’t want that to get worse. Lily knows that too, by the way.”

“What are we gonna do? We can’t let Snape tell anyone.”

“I’ll talk to him. And so will Lily. Don’t worry.”

James sighs. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Was he bitten or scratched?”

“As far as I can tell, all the injuries are from either the Willow or him trying to get away quickly.”

“Thank God. I’ll take care of Severus as long as you take care of Sirius. Make sure he gets what coming to him, okay? He needs to learn his lesson.”

“Don’t worry about Sirius. I know how to get through to him.” 

Wisteria sighs. “Thank you. Now go. I’ll take him from here.”

“Are you okay? You have a nasty bump on your forehead?”

“I’ll be fine. Just go.”

Severus wakes up halfway to the infirmary and starts moving in Wisteria’s arms. “Wisty?” He asks, clearly still out of it.

“Hang on Sev, we’re almost to Madame Pomfrey. I’ve healed what I could and nothing seems too severe, but you should still see her.”

“Wisty, wait. Remus… Lupin he’s- he’s a monster.”

“I’m not about to tolerate any talk like that, do you hear me Sev? He’s still Remus. But we can address that later, for now I’m gonna drop you off with Pomfrey and then go get Lily, okay?”

“Lily? Yeah, okay.”

Wisteria does as promised and as soon as the situation is explained to Madame Pomfrey she leaves for the Gryffindor Tower again to find her twin. After waiting a bit to be let in she immediately finds Lily in the Common Room talking to James who seems to be explaining the situation to her.

“Lily.” Wisteria says to get her sister’s attention. “I just came from the infirmary. I promised Sev I’d bring you down to see him.”

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah he’s fine. He has a few bumps and scrapes and bruises from the tree but that’s all.”

“But that’s not all. He knows now.”

“He does. And you’re going to help me convince Sev to not tell anyone.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” Before leaving the room, Lily turns to look at James again. “James? Give Sirius an earful for me will you?”

“Oh believe me, he’s gonna get more than just an earful from me.”


	32. Year 4 - Part 4

 

“We are  _ not  _ inviting him to our birthday party!”

“Of course we are.”

“No we are not.”

“And why not?”

“Have you forgotten what he did to Sev? To Remus?”

The Evans twins have been arguing over whether or not they are inviting Sirius to their birthday party for a little under an hour now. All of their friends are very annoyed.

“He made a mistake Wisty.”

“A rather big one, dont you agree?”

“Yes, he was reckless, but the situation ended up okay. Besides, since when is Sirius not reckless.”

“That’s the point Lily! He needs to learn that there are times when he need to be able to control his impulses. And as for the situation ending up okay, that doesn’t mean anything! It could have ended horribly!”

“Honestly, Wisty, you can ignore him all you want, but I don’t see a point in excluding him entirely.”

“The point is that he learns first hand that his actions have consequences!”

“We weren’t even directly involved with this! This is something he needs to make right with the Marauders. I would also say Severus, but he never had a good relationship with him to begin with.”

“I’ll forgive him when Remus does.”

“That’s nice, but in the meantime he can come to our party and you can just avoid him. Or does his presence somehow offend you?”

Wisteria flushes. “It’s just that it’s much harder to remain indignant when he’s actually in the room.”

“That’s because you know you shouldn’t still be mad at him!”

“I’ll forgive him when Remus does!”

“All of the Marauders are coming to the party!”

“Then I guess we’re gonna have two separate parties this year!”

Lily rolls her eyes. “Fine, I’ll just have mine in the Gryffindor Common Room then.”

“And mine will just be Ravenclaw friends. I’ll give you your present during dinner in the Great Hall the night of.”

“Yeah. I guess that works.”

“I’ll see you later Lils.”

“See you Wisty.”

The night of the 20th of January finally rolls around and Wisteria found herself and her 4 closest friends sittin on the floor of their room. 

“Remind me again why we are sitting on the floor of our room just the five of us rather than having a party with all our friends like every other year.” Christine says.

“Because Lily and I couldn’t come to an agreement on who was and was not invited.”

“Who was it that you guys were arguing about anyway?” Shannon asks.

“Probably Sirius.”

“Pen!”

“Oh come on. Don’t act like its not obvious that something happened. You’ve been avoiding him like the plague and the other Marauders have been tense around him for the past month. What did he do that was so bad?”

Wisteria coughs a bit. “Can we maybe not talk about that today? I’d rather have a good time tonight.”

 

The good time couldn’t last though. The next day the Evans sisters received letters from their parents with some bad news. 

_ Dear Lily and Wisty, _

_ The news is a little delayed in getting to you because we didn’t want to ruin your birthday, but we didn’t want to withhold the news from you for too long, so hopefully this gets to you soon after your birthday. Your Grandpops was found in his bed with an empty pill bottle and a suicide note on the nightstand next to him. They tell us that he passed painlessly and in his sleep, and his note explained that he had been reading the signs and believed it was time. We’re going to visit your Grandma for a little while to help her adjust and we’ll visit again with you girls when you’re home for the summer. If you need anything, send the letters to us at Grandma’s house and if you feel you need it we can try to ask Headmaster Dumbledore if he would allow you both some time back home to grieve with family. Be sure to talk to one another and be there for each other. We love you both. _

_ ~Mum and Dad _

Grandpops was their grandfather on their mums side. Both of them had been very close to him in the past, but it had gotten harder to stay that close with them at Hogwarts. On top of that, this is the first major loss of a family member that either of them have had to deal with. Lily runs off with her friends hot on her heels leaving Wisteria to gape dumbly after her. It doesn't take long for Fabian to appear asking what happened and if she's alright. She gives him the letter. She doesn't know if she's alright. She just feels numb. Shouldn't she be sad? Is she sad? She doesn't know. Then Fabian touches her face and is wiping away tears she hadn't been aware were falling and her stunned calm comes crashing down. She gasps and stutters in shaky breaths at sudden sobs wrack her body. 

Fabian has no idea how to handle this. He didn't know her grandfather, so he cant morn with her, but he should be able to console her right? Make her feel better or something? How do you even do that? He tentatively puts his arms around her and suddenly she's clutching to him, pulling herself tight against his chest and now he really doesn't know what to do. He looks helplessly to Gideon who just shrugs and then and then to her friends who are next to her. Finally Penelope pulls her away from Fabian and hands her a glass of water.  
"Drink this. You'll get dehydrated from crying so much."   
Wisteria nods and tries to drink it, but her hands are shaking too much for her to drink most of it. By now news has spread to most of the room and the group are given space to help her mourn. Sometime during most of the room moving away, the Marauders found their way over and sat down.  
"Tell me about him." Sirius says simply.  
"I... I haven’t seen him since I got my-my first Hogwarts letter. When I was growing up he-he was always kind of old fashioned, and he was su-super smart. He was a-a nuclear engineer or-or something. He taught me how to-to play piano during the day and at-at night we would sit outside and-and talk about books and he wo-would teach me constellations and stuff." She smiles a bit. 

"The last time I-I saw him, he had me do a-a scavenger hunt around the house. He-he showed me a statue and told me to-to do some research to find out what it was of. When I did that he-he told me to do a bunch of research on a specific part of it. It-it went like that for a while, I did research, reported to him wh-what I'd found, and he told me what part to research next. In th-the end I came to a gold coin used South Africa as currency since 1967 that had a-a breed of Antelope called Springbok on it. My prize for doing all of that was one of those gold coins. I still have it. It’s in my room back home."

She takes an easier breath in and Penelope hands the water back to her. This time her hands are shaking considerably less and she manages to drink most of it.  
"Maybe, er... Maybe you and I can go to the astronomy tower and look at the stars like you used to with him?" Fabian offers.  
"You can’t exactly do that in the daytime Fabs." Gideon reminds him.  
"Oh... Right."  
"That sounds really nice actually.” Wisteria says. “Maybe we could to that tonight?"  
"Yeah. Do you... Do you want me to walk you back to Ravenclaw tower right now or anything?"  
"I... think I wanna be alone with my thoughts for a bit actually."  
"Okay. I'll meet you at the Astronomy tower at Dusk then?"  
"Sounds good." She turns to her friends. "I'll see you guys tonight."  
They all reply and she wanders out of the hall.  
After about an hour of wandering she comes across the Room of Requirement. Upon opening the door she finds Michael sitting at the piano. He turns to hed, shocked.

"Wisty... You wanted to play the piano?"  
"Yeah... I didn’t know you played."  
"I didn’t know you played either. Are you okay? You look..."  
"Like shit? Yeah... It’s been a rough day..."  
"I'll... just leave then."   
As he passes her on his way out she grabs his sleeve and he freezes. "Michael." She whispers. "I just lost someone very important to me and I could really use all of my friends to help me get through the next few weeks."  
"Do you... Do you want me to stay with you right now?"  
She shakes her head. "Right now I want to be alone. But I want my friend back..."  
He gives her a small nod. "I'll see you around Wisty..." she lets go of his sleeve and he starts to walk away, but before she can shut the door behind him he turns to look at her. "Maybe... Tomorrow or the day after or whenever works for you, we could have lunch in the kitchen with the elves. You could bring your friends and Fabian."  
She smiles at him. "Tomorrow would be nice."  
"Great. I'll uh... I'll see you then."

 

Wisteria spends most of the rest of the day in the Room of Requirements, relearning to play the instrument she hasn’t touched in four years. She skips Charms and Herbology, her only classes of the day, and when the sun gets low to the ground she makes her way to the Astronomy Tower to meet Fabian.

“Hey.” He says.

“Hey.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Honestly? I’m moving back and forth between drowning in my sorrows and not believing it. I guess I’m moving into denial right? Isn’t that a stage of grief?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

There are a few beats of awkward silence. The awkward part might just be on Fabian’s side though. He still doesn’t really know how to handle this situation. He watches as Wisteria moves across the room and sits on the floor.

“I’m sorry that I’m so bad at this… making you feel better thing.” He tells her. “I haven’t lost anyone close to me before so I don’t really know how to do this.”

“You being here for me is enough.”

They have another few beats of awkward silence as he sits beside her and considers what to say or do. Finally he reaches out and grabs her hand.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“Right now I just want to feel close to him I think.”

Fabian remembers how easily Sirius managed to calm her down in the Hall this morning. “Tell me about him. Some stories of what he taught you about the sky or something.”

She smiles a bit. “Sure."


	33. Year 4 - Part 5

**** The next day, Wisteria drags her friends down to the kitchens for lunch with Michael.

“And you’re not afraid he’s going to bail?” Christine asks her.

“He was the one to suggest this and he doesn’t strike me as the type to go back on plans. So no, I’m not afraid of him bailing.”

“Why did he start talking to you again anyway?” Fabian asks, and Wisteria makes a mental note of the lack of jealousy in his voice.

“I don’t know, but I’m not going to push him for answers. I don’t want him to close himself off again.”

“Oh no Fabs, you may have some competition again.” Jane teases.

Fabian flushes and clears his throat a bit. “Oh, uh…”

Wisteria rolls her eyes. “You don’t have to worry about a thing Fabian. I got over Michael long ago.”

“Yeah Jane.” Penelope agrees. “Get with the program, Michael was like, 2 crushes ago.”

The group finally reaches the kitchens and upon entering find Michael already there, talking kindly to Deedee and a few other house elves. He looks up as the group comes in and smiles widely at Wisteria.

“You made it.”

“Of course I did. I said I would, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.”

“So…” Penelope says, getting everyone’s attention, “Speaking of crushes and Michael, Shay? How are you Will? We’re coming up on one year now aren’t we?”

Shannon blushes. “In a few months, yes. We’re fine.”

“You’re dating my brother?” Michael asks.

Shannon looks shocked. “Does he not talk about me?”

“No, that’s… I don’t talk to him is all, so I don’t know anything about his social life. I’m sure he talks about you all the time. Knowing him, he probably never shuts up about his smart, pretty girlfriend.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Suddenly Deedee appears in front of Wisteria, beaming up at her. “Wisty! Deedee is so happy to see you again! What can Deedee do for Wisty and her friends?”

“You can just get us the usual Deedee. Thank you.”

“Of course Wisty!”

As the house elves busy themselves with getting the students their food, the conversation drifts to school.

“So, Michael.” Fabian says, “You’re taking advanced classes?”

“Yeah. Back home life is pretty hectic, so as a child I was basically left up to my own devices and I used that time to teach myself a lot of stuff. Unfortunately that meant that when I got here, I felt bored with the stuff I should be learning because I already knew it. So I talked to Professor Sprout and Headmaster Dumbledore about taking classes a few years advanced and they agreed. At the rate I’m going I should graduate next year.”

“Wow…” Jane breathes. “That’s really impressive. Do you mind if I come to you when I need help in a subject?”

“Sure. Just let me know ahead of time so I can work it into my schedule.”

“Speaking of needing help in a subject, does anyone else feel like they’re going to fail our Transfigurations exam next week?” Wisteria asks glumly.

“What is it that you’re struggling with?” Michael asks.

“Everything. Specifically though, I can’t seem to be able to properly turn a hedgehog into a pincushion. I know all the theoretics and techniques, but when it actually comes to execution I can’t manage it.”

“Ah, I can try to help, but Transfiguration isn’t my strong suit.” Michael tells her.

“Just go to the Marauders like you usually do for help with that class.” Christine says.

Wisteria’s face falls and she looks down. “I… can’t.”

“What happened between you guys? You’ve been acting weird about them for a while now.” Fabian says. “Does this have to do with Sirius?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Whatever it is that he did, Peter and Lily seem to have gotten over it. I mean, they still seem tense around him, but they stopped ignoring him. What did he do?”

“It’s not my place to say. But that’s beside the point, I’m still going to fail Transfigurations.”

“I’ll help you with it.” Penelope says. “It’s one of my best classes so I should be able to help.”

“Thanks Pen.”

It’s then that the house elve’s deliver their food Jane immediately puts an end to the conversation. “Finally! Let’s eat!”

 

One stressful week of studying later sees Wisteria walking out of the Transfigurations classroom in despair, having failed the test despite her best efforts. She sulks back to the Ravenclaw common room with Penelope following beside her attempting to make her feel better.

“It was just one test Wisty, in the long run it wont be detrimental.”

“But it’s not just one test, it’s the whole damn course. I’m atrocious at transfiguration and if I keep failing these tests I’m going to fail the whole course and what will I do then?”

“Take a deep breath. You’re upset and a tad irrational right now. Later, when you’re in a better mood, you’ll be able to figure out a game plan and push through it like you always do.”

Wisteria takes her advice and breathes in deeply as Penelope answers the riddle to get them into the tower. They find a table to sit down at and Wisteria immediately puts her forehead on the table and grips the ends of her hair in frustration. “I feel like shit Pen. I feel like no matter what I do I keep failing the practical exams.”

“You’re just a slacker.” One of the girls sitting behind them says to Wisteria whose frustration continues to rise.

“What?” She snaps.

“I mean seriously. If you actually wanted to get a good grade you would have actually tried. You know, like, studied and stuff. Instead you sat on your ass and let yourself fail.”

“Excuse me?” Asks Penelope

“You’re in Ravenclaw aren’t you? That means you’re naturally smart like the rest of us. All you have to do is study to get a good grade, which means you didn’t actually try, so stop being a drama queen and try studying next time around.”

“I did study.”

“Yeah right.”

“Do you want me to go get all the notes and homework I wrote in preparation for the test?”

“If you actually did all that work then why did you fail?”

“Because I’m not good at it!”

“Then get someone to help you.”

“I did!”

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand what excuse you’re trying to make up.”

“I’m not making excuses! I’m not good at this stuff in practice, so while I can pass the written portion of the test, I do horrible on the actual spell casting portion!”

“Have you tried practicing more?”

“She practiced casting the spell hundreds of times.” Penelope speaks up.

“If she really did that she wouldn’t have failed.” Wisteria stares at the girl, mouth hung open trying to find something to say to her, but before she can the girl gets a smug look on her face. “Or maybe the Headmaster got it wrong and you aren’t a witch, just an ordinary muggle. That would certainly explain some things.”

“I can perform magic! I’m a witch, just like you!”

“Don’t compare yourself to me. Hate to break it to you kid, but you’re behind the learning curve because you’re a muggle born. Your kind shouldn’t be in class with those of us raised in the magic world. It’s unfair to you, you simply can’t keep up with the rest of us.”

“Dear Merlin, I can’t take this anymore. Pen, I’m going for a walk.” As Wisteria walks away from the tower she takes deep breaths and tries to calm herself down. In the end she fails miserably and is making her way through the castle crying quietly.      

“What are you crying about?” A sudden voice says. She raises her head to find Regulus standing tall above her.

“Don’t make my day worse by pretending to care.”

“I never said I cared. I just asked why you’re crying.”

She wipes some tears from her eyes and glances up to see if he had left yet only to find that he didn’t seem to have any intention of walking away.

“I’m not in the mood, Regulus.”

“I can see that.”

She lets out a humorless laugh. “Just like Mercury, you seem to know the best times to show up and ruin my day.”

Regulus frowns. “I’m not my brother.”

“No. No you’re not.” Wisteria wipes more tears from her eyes and meets his eye. He looks a lot like Sirius, but more put together. All three Black brothers were undeniably attractive, but each in a different way. Mercury was prim and perfect, Sirius was tousled and careless, and Regulus was a nice middle between the two. “I failed a test.”

“That’s what you’re crying about?”

“There was a girl in the common room who heard me talking to a friend about it. She kept saying that I obviously didn’t try because if I’m in Ravenclaw then I have to be naturally smart. I just got frustrated because I’m not naturally smart, I have to try so hard just to get a passing grade in most of the classes I take and no one else in my house seems to understand.”

“The sorting hat doesn’t necessarily sort you based on your current traits, but more so on your potential ones. It probably saw your potential to be smart and placed your accordingly.”

“I guess so… Anyway, she was just making me feel really bad for failing even though I worked my ass off, and got almost no sleep this entire week to study for this test while keeping up with my work from other classes and then she started talking about how I wasn’t doing well because I’m a muggle and on top of all that my grandpa died last week and overall this whole year has just been pretty shit and I just-” She breaks off with a shaky breath.

“Is that girl your friend?”

“What?”

“The girl that made you feel bad for failing a test. Is she your friend.”

“No. I’ve never spoken to her before.”

“Is she in your class? The one in which you failed the test I mean.”

“No. I think she’s a couple years older than me actually.”

“Well then you shouldn’t let her get to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if she’s not your friend and not in your class then she can’t possibly know how much time and effort you’ve put into the class right? She just overheard something and made an incorrect assumption. Her ignorance should make her opinion lose any weight it could’ve had. Don’t let her ignorant comments make you feel bad about yourself.”

Wisteria stares at him for a moment. He notices her staring and swallows as his cheeks are tinted pink with a blush.

“Thank you Regulus. That helped a lot.”

He frowns awkwardly and tries to look annoyed, but she can tell he’s embarrassed. “Whatever.” He mumbles and walks away quickly.

Wisteria smiles to herself and makes a mental note to tell Severus that she approves of his friend choice later. In the meantime she makes her way to the Room of Requirements to play piano again and finds Michael there again.

“Michael… how often do you play in here?”

“I usually do my homework in here so I can play when I get stressed out.”

“Oh. I suppose that makes sense. Do you mind if I join you?”

“Of course not. Come on in.” He moves over to a desk next to the piano to make room for her on the bench. “Why the sudden interest in playing?”

“When I was little I was taught to play by my grandfather, but I stopped when I left for Hogwarts… I guess that with his passing I just wanted a way to feel close to him again and this is what came to mind.”

“That’s sweet. Feel free to come and play anytime, even if I am in here.”

“Thank you.”

“Also… I want to apologize for… well, everything. I was going through some stuff and-”

“It’s fine Michael. You’re brother mentioned briefly that you sometimes can get like that and while I don’t understand it at all, I know that it still affected you. I’m just glad to have my friend back.”

“Thank you, Wisteria. I don’t think I deserve that.”

“Nonsense. Now, I think you should teach me to play your favorite song on the piano.”

Michael smiles at her. “I think I’ll work on some homework instead, since I can do that from here.”

“Do you not want to sit next to me?”

“I wouldn’t want to sit so close to you while you’re dating someone. Fabian might not like that very much.”

“I don’t think that’s true. It’s not like you have any intentions, right?”

“Definitely not.” As soon as the words leave his mouth he seems to realize how they sounded. “I mean… No offense to you, of course, I’m just… well…”

“Ace?”

“What?”

“Asexual. Not interested in anyone like that.”

“Oh. Yes, I suppose that is a rather good explanation for it.”

“And because you have no intentions in that regard, I see no reason for Fabian to be upset with us sharing a bench while you tell me about your favorite song.”

“If you insist.” He moves to sit next to her and reaches out to change the sheet music in front of them until it’s on the right song.

“Ah. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Good choice.”

“Specifically the third movement. Have you ever played it before?”

“My grandfather prefered music a tad bit more recent than Beethoven. His favorite was always Debussy, so I played many pieces by him and others from that time.”

“Maybe you could teach me your favorite Debussy piece after we work on this?”

“I would love to.”


	34. Year 4 - Part 6

After Charms one Friday a few months later Peter, James, and Lily approach Wisteria as she packs up her stuff.

“Can we talk to you for a bit?” James asks.

Wisteria tenses up and starts to look around, but Peter sighs and says, “Sirius isn’t here. I sent him ahead to save our seats at the table while Remus grabs some study material from the library.”

“What’s this about then?”

“The furry little problem.”

Lily rolls her eyes. “I thought we all agreed not to call it that.”

“Yeah, but no one could come up with anything better, so we’re using it anyway.” James argues. 

“What about the situation? Has something happened?”

James beams at her. “Hell yeah something happened! I did it!”

“You don’t mean…”

Peter nods excitedly. “Yeah. He managed to do it.”

“James that’s incredible!”

“I don’t trust myself to maintain the form for very long though, so I’m afraid it won’t be much help tomorrow night.”

“That’s perfectly fine.” Lily assures him. “Wisty and I finally got permission from Madame Promfrey to help her out with Remus when he gets back.”

“I guess we aren’t the only one’s working our asses off to help him.” James comments. “Impressive as always, my dear Lilypad.”

Lily rolls her eyes at him. “Anyway, we figured we could go to the Room of Requirements for a bit to give James a chance to show off.”

“Yeah, okay. Just give me a minute to finish packing up my things and tell my friends to save me a seat.”

Fifteen minutes later the four friends are in the Room of Requirements with James taking deep breaths and shaking out his hands nervously. Lily smiles at him. “You can do this James. I know you can.”

He looks momentarily shocked before his cocky smile is back on and he waves off her comment. “Of course I can Lily-pad, I’m James Potter, I can do anything.” He gulps and takes another breath. “Okay, here goes nothing.” He closes his eyes and mumbles to himself a bit and before their very eyes starts to shift. Now instead of their friend, standing before them is a Stag. He’s a little on the small side and his antlers are far from fully grown, but he’s still definitely a Stag.

“Incredible.” Wisteria breathes. 

“Isn’t it!” Peter says, practically buzzing with excitement. 

“You did it.” Lily says in awe. “You actually did it! James! Look at you! You have an animagus form! I wonder if it will grow more as you do? Do you think that one day you’ll have fuller antlers?”

“We should do some more research and find out.” Wisteria suggests.

“I could ask McGonagall.” Peter suggests.

“Okay, but don’t be too suspicious about it. The last thing we need is for you guys to get caught.” Lily says, watching as James prances around the room. 

Wisteria laughs, a little giddy from the excitement. “This is insane! I can’t believe you guys are actually pulling this off!”

“Now, now.” James says, shifting back into a human. “Give yourself some credit and at the very least say ‘we’re pulling this off’. After all, you two are the ones that did the boring stuff, we get the fun part.”

“And the dangerous part. That’s incredibly advanced magic, and you did it!” Lily practically squeals.

“I hate to end this so soon,” Peter speaks up, “But if James and I don’t go soon Remus is gonna get suspicious.”

“Oh, right. Okay then, let’s head out. And you two be sure to update us as more progress is made with Peter and Sirius, okay?” Lily says. 

“Of course, Lily-pad, any excuse to talk to you.”

Lily rolls her eyes and she and Wisteria say goodbye to the boys as they head out first. “I can’t believe he hasn’t given that up yet.” Lily complains.

“At least you’ve gotten used to it. Besides, it’s not like he’s a bad guy, maybe you should give him a chance.”

“No way. At least, not anytime soon.”

“But possibly in the future?”

“One never knows what the future holds.”

“I’m sure he’d be through the roof if he knew he still stood a chance.”

“Which is exactly why you’re not going to tell him.”

“My lips are sealed.”

“Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go see Mary in the infirmary.”

“Infirmary? What happened?”

“Have you not heard? Mulciber cursed her. Nothing too dangerous of course, but enough to give everyone a bit of a scare and to get him detention for the rest of his time at Hogwarts.”

“I had no idea. Tell her I say hello and wish her well.”

“Of course. I’ll see you later Wisty.”

“Yeah, see you.”

By the time Wisteria gets to the Great Hall for food only Penelope remains of her friends. As she takes her seat Penelope doesnt even look up before telling her, “Christy is off with her new boy, a Gryffindor I think, Shay is spending time with Will, and I don’t really know where Jane wandered off to.”

“Sorry it took me so long to get here.”

“It’s fine. You were talking to Lily about Mary, right?”

“Yeah, when did you hear about it?”

“The whole hall’s been buzzing about it so word got around a couple of minutes into us eating. Come to think of it, Jane is closer to Mary than the rest of us, she might have gone to visit her.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” The two eat in silence for a few moments before Penelope suddenly says,

"So there's this Slytherin boy in Potions that I've been talking to."  
"Oh?" Wisteria asks, a knowing quirk in her eyebrow.  
She nods. "His name is Nick. His mom was a squib and his dad a muggle, but they died when he was little so he was raised by his maternal grandmother who was a witch so he was raised in the wizarding world."  
"Okay. So..."  
"He's cute. Sandy hair, a mischievous smile, the kind of sweet boy with a devil-may-care attitude that I love to read about. The other Slytherins tend to pick on him because of his parents, so we became partners for the class."  
"And I take it you want to date him?"  
"Well... Yeah."  
"What about Remus?"  
"You can’t spend your whole life on one person right? I'm moving on."  
Wisteria smiles. "Then when do I get to meet this 'Nick'?"

“You’ll be playing him in the game tomorrow. He’s a Chaser. You could meet him afterwards.”

“Ah, I, uh… I actually can’t hang around long after the game. Maybe enough for a quick introduction, but Lily and I promised to study with the Marauders that night.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, sorry. James thinks he found a way to help me with Transfigurations and Peter wanted help in Astrology, so we made study plans.”

“Will Sirius be there?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“So, you’re talking to him again?”

“No. James helping me in Transfigurations and me helping Peter in Astrology has nothing to do with Black.”

“Black? He’s been demoted to last name basis?”

“Plenty of people refer to others using their last names without it being derogatory.”

“You don’t.”

“Well… So what? We all know that I’m not his biggest fan right now and it’s not as if I’m the only one. Remus is avoiding him as much as possible too.”

“I never said you were the only one. Anyway, it’s whatever. Have fun with the Marauders, you can get to know Nick later, it’s not as if he’s my boyfriend anyway.”

“Not yet at least. Speaking of boyfriends, where’s Fabian run off to?”

“Last I saw he was sneaking around with his brother. They’re probably setting up some prank.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”


End file.
